Reconceptualizing the Counseling Profession: A Decoloniality Journey

The decolonization movement has become an everyday language in the counseling field. Due to political influences, some debates exist about the real meaning of decolonizing mental health. This textbook attempts to bring the Global South’s knowledge about the theoretical bases of decolonization to the North without misappropriating this knowledge and simultaneously providing practical applications and interventions. That is, in this book, the authors will first give the theoretical bases for the decolonization movement, beginning by describing the colonization process as a process of different stages and presenting the work of Enriquez, Dussel, Freire, Quijano, and others as a model of decolonization from a liberatory perspective. Featuring insights from 20 members of historically colonized nations, this bold new textbook reclaims the work that's been both foundational to and obfuscated in the field of counseling by giving voice to neglected populations. This book goes beyond social justice and advocacy, providing practical applications and interventions for anti-oppressive counseling practices. It invites counselors to the work of decolonial liberation and decoloniality so that their practice and care can deeply and richly meet the needs of post-colonized populations.

Dr. Edil Torres Rivera has a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology with a concentration in multicultural counseling from the University of Connecticut, Storrs. He is a professor of counseling and the director of the Latinx Cluster initiative at Wichita State University, Wichita, Kansas. Edil Torres Rivera is native Puerto Rican with a career of over 25 years in counseling. This includes 12 years in the United States Army. He is the president elect of the American Counseling Association (2022-2023).

Dr. Torres Rivera research interests are in multicultural counseling, group work, chaos theory, liberation psychology (decolonial approaches), indigenous counseling, Puerto Rican studies, identity development, and gang/prison-related behavior. Specifically, his primary research focuses on complexity and how indigenous healing techniques are a necessary ingredient when working with ethnic minority populations in the United States. Dr. Torres Rivera has additional interests in studying the implications of social injustice and oppression in counseling and psychotherapy with ethnic minorities in the United States.

His community work includes consultation services to the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe Council in Nevada, visiting professor to the Universidad del Valle, Guatemala, and he was the director of the Graduate School of Education’s School Counseling Program in Singapore.