Anti-Oppressive Practice Within Counselling and Coaching
A lot of counselling and coaching is looking at the individual and identifying changes they can make in the way they think and their behaviour in order to improve their wellbeing and happiness, but we can’t dismiss the power of systemic issues in our lives.
Patriarchy and capitalism are woven so deeply through our society that we have all internalised their values. Whether it’s measuring our personal value by our economic output or internalising gendered behaviours in the home or workplace, there’s a lot of internalised beliefs that can take a lot of unpicking.
I have an interest in discussing systemic oppression with clients and acknowledging where this affects their lives and where they can take control. This can include counselling or coaching around internalised ableism and learning to value ourselves outside of the economic system and to feel confident in prioritising our wellbeing over productivity. It can also include acknowledging where there is a lack of fairness within relationships, unequal mental load, and exploitation of invisible labour. And also discussing gender expectations for people who feel outside of the conventional binary and want to explore what that looks like for them as an individual, releasing ourselves from rigid masculine or feminine gendered expectations of expression and behaviour.
A lot of these ideas are so ingrained in our society that they are invisible, and it’s only by making them visible and conscious that we can challenge them in our lives and make changes. Counselling can help uncover these internalised thoughts and beliefs, and coaching can help us to see where we are limited by them and how we want to change things.
Further resources
Fair Play by Eve Rodsky
Gender: A Graphic Guide by Meg-John Barker and Jules Scheele
Disability: A History of Resistance by Professor David Turner