Describe the responsibility of the nursing profession in advocating for social justice. As an advanced practice nurse, describe how you will advocate for social justice.

The Role of Counselors as Social Justice Advocates

Part 1

Locus of control was developed by Julian Rotter, who believed that it was a prerequisite for counselors to have a clear understanding of how the counseling process could be affected by world views and Locus of control (Aspelmeier et al., 2012). Locus of control holds that how a person views the world would be informed by reinforcements that emanate from outside sources. As such, a person may not have control over such reinforcements. In other words, the worldview of an individual would be based on the behavior, morals, and values they would gain through external reinforcement. This then implies that how a person relates to the world depends on their worldviews and understanding of dominant world perceptions. The relationship between an individual and the world would come in the form of religious practices, cultural beliefs, and personal worldviews (Aspelmeier et al., 2012). Such aspects would largely determine the approaches that would be applied by a counselor as they discharge their professional counseling services.

Based on the self-assessment, I got to learn that I have an internal locus of control. I thus have the belief that I am always in full control of my actions and behaviors, irrespective of whether they might be negative or positive. One of the major advantages I enjoy from having an internal locus of control is that I can maximally benefit from online learning, given that I do not have to be physically present during lessons because I am self-motivated. On the flip side, having an internal locus of control makes me feel stressed, especially when I fail to work within a given deadline or when I feel that everyone is on my neck for assistance, especially such assistance as caring for children or financial assistance (Aspelmeier et al., 2012). I intend to effectively balance the effects of the internal Locus of control through yoga, meditation, and other exercise of relaxation/breathing.

Part 2

As a multifaceted approach to counseling, the aim of the social justice aspect is to promote the common good of humans and their development. In this regard, counselors should strive to address distributive justice and individual challenges. In discharging their counseling duties, counselors should empower their clients by making them aware of the social injustices and evils that all society. They should ensure that the counseling strategies they apply are geared towards actively confronting societal inequality and injustice. This is because their clientele would be hugely impacted by the counseling strategies and interventions they put to use in their counseling sessions. In so doing, counselors would be promoting four principles that are critical to social justice promotion. These principles include harmony, participation, access, and equity. The tackling of social justice promotion would require counselors to lay their focus on the individual, contextual, and cultural needs of their clients (Dimmitt & Wilkerson, 2012).

One of the advocacy strategies to promote social justice for diverse populations at both the individual and group levels would be to educate the most affected communities about the existent laws and the manner in which they may keep within the laws by modifying, adapting, or altering some of their practices (Martin & Carey, 2012). For instance, in the case study, the core families need to appreciate that it would not be possible to stay together always as the tenancy rules would not allow that. Another strategy would be to educate the entire mainstream society that they should learn to appreciate the practices they consider strange from other communities. This is because some of these practices are cultural and historical and not abusive. Counselors should also use the media to educate individuals, families, and couples from diverse populations and the entire society about how diversity contributes positively to society in terms of building intercultural communities that are peaceful. In doing this, counselors should collaborate and partner with spiritual and community leaders.

The characteristics and concerns of refugees, both nationally and internationally, would vary based on their cultural and religious backgrounds. Generally, however, refugees would always want to be allowed to exercise their cultural and religious practices wherever they are in the world, whether in their home country or seeking refuge in another part of the world. Their way of life would always feel threatened by the change of environment. It thus becomes the responsibility of counselors to ensure that their counseling strategies identify and consider such concerns and characteristics. For instance, when working with Muslim refugees, counselors would need to understand the following issues: Muslims fancy dining together, Mu