Advocacy

When I think about advocacy now, it feels much more personal and much more urgent than it once did. Before entering this program, I believed in “being a good person” and caring about others, but my engagement with advocacy was passive—sharing social media posts, agreeing with the ideas of justice, and feeling sympathy for those who struggled. It wasn’t until I began doing the deeper internal work required of this field that I started to understand what advocacy really means and what it demands of me. Just as my understanding of multicultural competence opened my eyes to the realities of oppression, privilege, and the lived experiences of those different from me, my understanding of advocacy has grown into something much more intentional, action-oriented, and rooted in responsibility.

Through my coursework and my internship at the shelter, I’ve witnessed how deeply systems shape the lives of my clients—often in ways they have little control over. Many of the individuals I work with are navigating trauma, poverty, homelessness, addiction or domestic violence, and yet they’re also navigating a world that frequently misjudges or overlooks them. Being in this environment has shown me that counseling alone is not enough. Healing happens in the room, but many of the barriers my clients face exist far beyond it. Understanding this has pushed me to see advocacy not as an optional part of the profession, but as a core ethical obligation and a reflection of the kind of counselor and human being I want to be.

Currently, I advocate for my clients directly through the counseling process by helping them rebuild their sense of agency, offering compassion, and addressing systemic barriers in small but meaningful ways—whether that's connecting them to resources, normalizing their trauma responses, or helping them feel seen and valued in a world that often hasn’t. These actions matter, and they create real shifts in the therapeutic process, but I’m also beginning to recognize the impact of other types advocacy such as collaborating with shelter staff, challenging harmful narratives, and offering trauma-informed perspectives that help others understand and support survivors more effectively.

Looking ahead, I know my advocacy must expand beyond individual moments in session and outreach within my own internship site. I feel compelled to engage more actively in community education, domestic violence prevention efforts, and policy initiatives aimed at expanding mental health access and increasing protections for survivors of domestic violence or those experiencing homelessness. I want to use my voice, and eventually my platform as a licensed counselor, to help dismantle the misconceptions, structural inequities, and systemic gaps that keep so many of my clients stuck in cycles they did not create.

As I continue growing into this profession, my commitment is to stay aware, stay engaged, and stay willing to do the uncomfortable but necessary work. Advocacy, to me, is both an internal and external practice. It’s the willingness to challenge my own assumptions, to speak up even when silence feels easier, and to continuously work toward a more just, compassionate world. The more I learn, the more I recognize my responsibility—not just as a counselor, but as a person—to contribute to change wherever I can, in whatever ways I am able, and to never stop evolving.