The future of the counseling profession depends on the leadership and advocacy of its current and future members. But what makes a good leader or advocate and what can clinicians learn from current counseling leaders?
Counseling Leaders & Advocates: Strengthening the Future of the Profession, an ACA-published book co-edited by Cassandra Storlie and Barbara Herlihy, explores these questions by examining the personal and professional experiences of prominent leaders and advocates in the field.
The profiled leaders in this book do not name a single leadership theory that guides their work, but as Storlie and Herlihy point out in the introduction, they all “speak of leadership as a process of empowering others and as an opportunity to advocate.” They don’t “espouse a traditional view of leadership as a power-over position,” they note, “rather, they speak of ‘leading from behind,’ working ‘behind the scenes,’ and ‘leading by doing,’ not for their own aggrandizement but to move our profession forward and improve services to our clients.”
The COVID-19 pandemic and systemic racism and injustices will continue to challenge leadership and advocacy. Storlie and Herlihy hope this book will encourage the next generation of leaders and advocates who, they argue, “must embrace the complex issues facing our clients, the profession as a whole, and our national and global societies if we are to advance and continue to distinguish excellence in professional counseling.”
Q+A: Counseling Leaders and Advocates: Strengthening the Future of the Profession
Responses are written by editors Storlie and Herlihy. Storlie is a licensed professional clinical counselor supervisor and an associate professor and doctoral program coordinator in the counselor education and supervision program at Kent State University. Herlihy is a professor in practice and doctoral program director in the counselor education program at the University of Texas at San Antonio as well as professor emeritus in the College of Education and Human Development at the University of New Orleans.
How are leadership and advocacy similar and how are they different?
As counselors, it is natural for us to consider ourselves advocates. We advocate for clients, groups, families and communities and on behalf of our profession. Advocates are driven by a passion to make positive change in the lives of their clients, in the systems that contribute to marginalization and oppression of clients and client populations, and in the profession for the purpose of increasing our capacity to reach and help those in need. Yet, many of us do not consider ourselves leaders.
Leadership and advocacy are inherently related, and advocacy initiatives taken on by counseling leaders affect our world today. Most importantly, leadership in counseling has been emphasized from the servant leader perspective (a phrase coined by Robert K. Greenleaf in 1970). The leaders profiled in our book did not view leadership as a power-over position. Instead, they saw it as leading by doing and working behind the scenes for the sake of moving the profession forward and improving client services. As such, one can deduce that leadership in counseling is ineffective when leadership practices move away from our core values as professional counselors. That said, if you are a leader in counseling, you are most likely an advocate. If you are an advocate in counseling, you are most likely a leader!
What qualities or personal characteristics are essential to being a good leader or advocate?
Taking information from the areas of servant leadership (Greenleaf, The Servant as Leader, 1970), authentic leadership (Bill George, Authentic Leadership: Rediscovering the Secrets to Creating Lasting Value, 2003) and transformational leadership (Ronald Piccolo and Jason Colquitt, “Transformational leadership and job behaviors: The mediating role of core job characteristics,” 2006) literature, good leaders and advocates share power and allow for space to include all voices. They are genuine, relational, ethical, motivating and inspirational. In addition, given the challenging times in which we are living, it is essential for leaders to be adaptive and to help others understand the complexities of their environment to better help people deal with change.
How does being culturally responsive change the way a counselor approaches leadership?
We don’t know where we are going if we don’t know where we have been. By striving for culturally responsive counseling leadership, we embark on a journey in which we voluntarily accept both the privilege and responsibility of intervening. Culturally responsive leaders will help our profession become stronger and more inclusive, representing more diverse voices and combatting systemic injustices. These leaders also examine how their intersectionality (a term coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw) affects others. They focus on challenging their worldviews to uncover unconscious bias and move forward reflectively to ameliorate barriers to inclusion.
Leadership does not always mean serving in formal positions (e.g., president of a counseling organization). What other ways can counselors be leaders and advocates within and outside the profession?
Formal leadership is just one of the ways you can be a leader and advocate in our profession. In Chapter 3 of the book, Michael Brubaker and Andrew Wood highlight previous scholars who have shown us the importance of developing advocacy dispositions, relationships and knowledge to set up and best execute and evaluate advocacy plans. These efforts can be conducted within the counseling profession or outside the profession. We also think it’s important to carefully select counseling sites or populations you work with and partnerships that allow you to best formulate your leadership and advocacy plans. Perhaps it’s partnering with a school district or joining a local National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) group to better support the mental health needs of your community. There are myriad ways in which counselors can be leaders and advocates — and as we mentioned earlier, you probably already are!
What are some key takeaways from the stories of counseling leaders and advocates in the book?
Ahhh … key takeaways! Well, one thing that stood out for us is how many leaders have served as role models and mentors to others within the profession, and how deeply they appreciated their own mentors. Additional principles that were woven throughout their stories were having a vision for the future, encouraging and empowering others, recognizing the contributions of others, and engaging in self-reflection. We think it is also important to point out that each leader shared their own experiences of adversity that they overcame — showing us that these individuals, who have passion and purpose, also had to dig deep to gain resilience as leaders and advocates.
How do counselors overcome challenges and setbacks in their career and how does this shape the leader or advocate they become?
Of the leaders and advocates we profiled, each had their own unique challenges and setbacks. As Devon Romero, Madelyn Duffey and myself (Cassie) synthesized in Chapter 17, these leaders were “People who encountered doubt and persevered in the face of grief, loss, and adversity … [and] who made mistakes and desired to learn from them. …[This] adversity shaped who they are, how they lead, and what they value.”
One of the ways counselors can overcome challenges and setbacks in their career is to use their skill sets to be reflective about what they are experiencing. Both of us have reflected on setbacks in our own careers and found it helpful to explore what we have learned from the challenging experiences. If we can use a professional challenge to bring added value to our lives, then we are navigating our professional journey with perseverance.
What role do mentors and supervisors play in shaping new leaders and advocates in the profession?
Mentoring is crucial for the development of new leaders and advocates. Good mentors are those who make time to be available to their mentees (often throughout several decades), who convey a belief in these mentees when they don’t yet believe in themselves, and who open doors to provide opportunities to gain leadership and advocacy experience. Mentors can also be sponsors in that they are looking out for possibilities for their mentees when those mentees are not present.
We believe that being a good role model and truly modeling culturally responsive leadership can be a valued lesson for mentees. My (Cassie’s) mentors have been and still are culturally responsive leaders and open to growth in their own development as professionals and individuals.
The counselors profiled in the book spoke with gratitude of their own mentors, and they took pride in the mentoring they have provided to others over the years. Our current leaders and advocates have a strong commitment to “pay it forward,” which seems to make it inevitable that this commitment will transfer to the next generation and to generations to come.
What practical advice do you have for counselors as they move into leadership and advocacy positions in the counseling profession?
In the book, we offered five suggestions for aspiring leaders and advocates. First, find a mentor. Mentors can help you navigate your way toward gaining leadership experience and learning to advocate in ways that fit with your passions. Second, start small. Most of us have difficulty even imagining ourselves ever becoming as accomplished as the leaders and advocates profiled in the book. Rather than immobilize yourself with comparisons, realize that opportunities for leadership and advocacy are all around you, and volunteer for a small opportunity to serve a cause about which you care deeply. Third, keep your balance. This suggestion serves as a reminder of the importance of self-care and life-work balance. Fourth, lead to serve rather than acting out of a need to fill a line on one’s vita or to feel important. Servant leaders are absolutely the most effective leaders we have in our profession. Last, trust yourself. If someone sees something in you, it’s because it’s already there.
What is the most important or surprising lesson you have learned about leadership throughout your own counseling career?
For Barbara, it was the realization that leadership is composed of a set of behaviors rather than holding a formal title or position. Many, if not most, of our leaders and advocates are working behind the scenes, fostering change and furthering social justice initiatives without a need for recognition.
I (Cassie) second all that Barbara outlined above, and I also want to point out the important need to intentionally “pay it forward” and help to mentor others’ leadership development.
What does being a leader mean in today’s social climate, especially considering the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and social unrest?
That is an excellent question! In the current political and social climate, a starting point for bringing people together in peace is for us to use our basic counseling skills such as listening — really listening — in an attempt to understand beliefs and values that clash with our own. We counselors have the skills to build bridges!
We also need to ensure we can have the crucial conversations necessary to help make sustainable change. We recognize this change does not happen overnight, but we also realize that change will never happen if we don’t talk about uncomfortable topics and honor the human dignity of everyone.
What practical actions can leaders take to combat systemic injustices and racism in the counseling profession and society at large?
We believe that silence in the face of injustice and racism is collusion. Leaders who are in the privileged position of being respected and admired have an obligation to speak up and confront injustice and prejudice, both within our profession and in the larger world. Although practical actions may look different at the microsystem level versus the macrosystem level, counselors can tailor their actions to advocate with and on behalf of those most marginalized. Additional actions can be further developed when integrating the Multicultural and Social Justice Counseling Competencies into one’s work.
In the book, you call on the counseling profession “to nurture, mentor, and increase diversity among future leaders.” How can the counseling profession address the lack of diversity within counseling leaders moving forward?
One thing we can do is to monitor our own implicit biases as we identify up-and-coming leaders who might benefit from opportunities to join with us in the work we are doing. We can also remember that diversity involves the intersection of multiple identities, not just those that are visible. Many of the leaders profiled in the book were aware of their privilege and were committed to ensuring they were inclusive as they were “paying it forward.”
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Counseling Leaders & Advocates: Strengthening the Future of the Profession was published by the American Counseling Association in 2021. It is available both in print and as an e-book at counseling.org/store or by calling 800-298-2276.
Watch ACA President S. Kent Butler’s conversation with Cassandra Storlie in a recent episode of the “Voice of Counseling” video podcast: https://youtu.be/157o_3QrHwk
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Opinions expressed and statements made in articles appearing on CT Online should not be assumed to represent the opinions of the editors or policies of the American Counseling Association.
