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Racial Microaggressions: a Primer with Implications for Counseling Practice

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Abstract

Given their societal toll and ubiquitous nature, counselors and other mental health professionals inevitably will encounter clients who have experienced racial microaggressions in their practice. In this primer, we examine key issues relative to racial microaggressions and their impact on the lives of members of racial and ethnic minority groups. Drawing on burgeoning research, we also address likely coping strategies. Finally, we offer implications for mental health training and counseling practice. Throughout, we highlight the evident resilience of racial and ethnic minority individuals in the context of racial microaggressions.

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Notes

  1. Racialization denotes the ideological and systematic process through which people of color came to be associated with a particular race, and consequently marginalized. It also denotes the social construction of racial categories, including whiteness.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Educational and Counseling Psychology, McGill University, 3700 McTavish Street, Education Building, Room 614, Montreal, QC, H3A 1Y2, Canada

    Sara Houshmand & Jack De Stefano

  2. Counseling and Counseling Psychology, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA

    Lisa B. Spanierman

Authors
  1. Sara Houshmand
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  2. Lisa B. Spanierman
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  3. Jack De Stefano
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Correspondence to Sara Houshmand.

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Conflict of Interest

This project was funded in part by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Fellowship awarded to the first author (Award Number: 767–2012-1084). The second and third authors declare they have no conflict of interest.

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Houshmand, S., Spanierman, L.B. & De Stefano, J. Racial Microaggressions: a Primer with Implications for Counseling Practice. Int J Adv Counselling 39, 203–216 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10447-017-9292-0

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