How to Coach Yourself and Others Empowering Coaching And Crisis Interventions | Page 60

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Critical Consciousness.
Supporting the empowerment process requires that counsellors engage in an ongoing attempt to facilitate client
awareness of context through the process of consciousness raising in a manner consistent with the clients
situation, needs and abilities. Counsellors cannot engage in consciousness-raising without developing their own
understanding of the power dynamics affecting both clients and themselves. Critical consciousness can be
increased through two overlapping processes: power analysis and critical self-reflection.
Power analysis refers to examining how power is distributed in a given situation in terms of race/ ethnicity,
gender, disability status, sexual orientation, age, experience, family position, etc. (McWhirter, 1994) .
Example: To illustrate power analysis, a faculty member might engage students in exploring the personal and
professional repercussions of the program / department / university's adherence to medical, economic, or
sociopolitical models of disability (Hahn, 1988).
According to Hahn (1988), the medical model defines disability in terms of individual limitations, while the
economic model focuses on the individuals functional limitations. By contrast, the sociopolitical model defines
disability as a multifaceted product of the interaction between the individual and the environment, and
emphasiz