EDUCATIONAL counseling & school psychology
Students develop skills to
support oppressed groups
The Counseling Psychology
program hosted an Ally
Development Workshop in
January for its incoming master’s
and doctoral students. This
annual workshop is developed
and led by second- year
Counseling Psychology doctoral
students. Minnah Farook, one
of the doctoral students who
helped organize the event,
recently explained more about the
workshop:
Why the name ‘Ally
Development Workshop?’
The name comes from the idea
that we are learning to be allies for
different oppressed groups who
can use the support of people with
privileged identities. It helps us
develop our identity as an ally.
Minnah Farook
What is the purpose
of the workshop?
The workshop focuses on
examining our privileged and oppressed identities,
increasing awareness of our biases and stereotypes of
different groups, and learning how to be an ally for an
oppressed group. For example, I might be a heterosexual
person of color. In this case, my race is an oppressed
identity, but being heterosexual is a privileged identity. So
I can learn how to be an ally for LGBTQIA community,
and work to increase awareness of LGBTQIA (lesbian, gay,
bisexual, queer, intersex, asexual) issues, advocate for this
group and its needs, and learn to stop engaging in activities
or behaviors that might be oppressive to this group (e.g.
using correct pronouns, not saying things like “that’s so
gay”).
What topics does the workshop cover?
This year we covered sexism, heterosexism, racism,
classism/poverty, xenophobia and Appalachian identity.
COE COMMUNICATOR | MARCH 2015
How does the workshop
benefit incoming students?
The workshop helps students
begin to examine their biases and
worldviews and how that might
impact their work with clients
as therapists or interactions in
everyday life. The students learn
how prejudice and discrimination
can be intentional and
unintentional (microaggressions)
and how that impacts people of
different oppressed groups. The
hope is that students will continue
to increase their awareness
of privileged and oppressed
identities; be mindful of behaviors
or communication that might be
oppressive, and not engage in
such behaviors; and learn to give
voice to or advocate for oppressed
groups.
What are some typical
questions/concerns
of incoming students?
Many students usually begin by examining their own
beliefs and behavior and how that may have contributed to
oppressing others and maintaining systems of oppression.
Facing our own privilege and behaviors can be a difficult and
uncomfortable process. Students also have questions about
how to interrupt systems of oppression, what they can do
to not contribute to the problem, and what they can do to
advocate for oppressed groups.
How did you use your experiences in the program
to help develop and teach the workshop?
I participated in this workshop as a first-year student.
That helped me think about what I thought worked well in
that workshop and what I would do differently. As firstyear students, we take course work through which we learn
about different kinds of –isms and how those affect people;
what we can do as therapists and therapists-in-training when
we work with oppressed groups, and how we can advocate
for them. I used my personal experiences, what I learned
from the workshop and classes to develop and facilitate this
workshop.
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