Culturally Sustaining Counseling Practices with Black, Indigenous, People of Color

This dissertation includes two manuscripts: a systematic review and a Delphi study, both focusing on culturally sustaining counseling with Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC). In the first manuscript, the review conducted a comprehensive search across databases for articles published between 2015 and 2023. Articles were included in the final sample (n = 11) if they were interventions that involved counselors and focused on BIPOC participants or specific racial-ethnic groups. Using charting and thematic analysis, descriptive and empirical data identified several strengths in integrating cultural factors and modifying and evaluating interventions. The first manuscript provides a foundation for the second by exploring the current literature and distilling it into seven themes that describe some components of culturally sustaining counseling interventions, such as assessment of cultural needs and context, inclusion of culturally relevant examples and materials, and collaboration with cultural experts and communities. However, the manuscript also highlights a gap in how to consistently apply this practice with BIPOC clients. This is the groundwork for the Delphi study in the second manuscript. The second manuscript builds on the first by eliciting narratives about counseling practices that lead to strengths-based work with BIPOC individuals, families, and communities. The expert panel (n = 20) in this Delphi study were BIPOC counselors who specialized in clinical, teaching, scholarship, and leadership related to counseling BIPOC clients. The study began with responses to open-ended prompts and used Reflexive Thematic Analysis (RTA) to develop 36 items across four categories: Counselor Reflexivity, Critical Inquiry of Knowledge Sources, Overall Counseling Conditions and Process, and Counseling Assessment, Intervention, and Evaluation. After two rounds of rating, 33 items reached consensus. Analysis of the final items, categories, and participant qualitative comments developed a practice framework designed to guide the implementation of the racial-ethnic components of culturally sustaining counseling. The resulting framework is a six-component cascading model that symbolizes a critical component of culturally sustaining counseling: Counselor Reflexivity, Critical Inquiry of Knowledge Sources, Counseling Conditions & Assessment, Non-Racial-Ethnic Process, Racial-Ethnic Process, and Evaluation & Integration. This framework provides guidance for professional counselors to integrate culturally sustaining principles into their clinical work.