Defining Privilege

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Reflecting on privilege and the privileges that she has acquired over time has been a hard pill for this student to swallow. One hopes that their achievements through life are based on personal merit and not on the culture that one was born into. However, obtaining an awareness of one’s unfair advantages is just the beginning of the process to become a socially just and culturally competent clinician. Through this paper, this student hopes the reader witnesses her first steps to understanding privilege and how it has affected her and others.
Defining Privilege
According to Anderson and Middleton (2011), privilege is “a right or immunity granted as a peculiar benefit or advantage, often taken for granted by members of dominant cultures or …show more content…
Currently, 76.5% of the population is white and the median household income is $109,512 (“Naperville city,” 2014). According to the United States Census Bureau, between the years 2000 to 2014, 96.7% of its inhabitants have graduated from high school or higher (“Naperville city,” 2014). This student’s parents stressed the importance of education and spared no cost while trying to help their children reach academic success. Also, this student had a grandmother who had previously set up a trust fund so that none of her grandchildren had to pay for …show more content…
In other words, we cannot have a socially just society if members of dominant cultures continue to receive privileges denied others. Therapists provide support and assistance to clients in order to help them reach emotion stability, achieve autonomy and develop effective problem-solving skills. However, there is another responsibility of a therapist that seems to get overlooked at times, which is advocating for one’s client. As mentioned above, environmental factors can contribute to an individual’s psychiatric instability. Although this student feels that this shouldn’t be the only focus while providing counseling services, it is still an important area to address. Therapists have a social and ethical responsibility to “address those systemic forces responsible for psychological problems” (Sue & Sue, 2013). According to Hanna, Talley, and Guindon (2000), “it is not enough to adjust to a system or a person that is oppressive or harmful. One must be liberated” (Hanna, Tally & Guindon, 2000). In other words, if you encourage a client to be subordinate to their oppressors, it is doubtful that the client will truly heal because they will have to face the same obstacles day in and day
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