DIGEST - Volume 11, Issue 2

6 TPC Digest 7 TPC Digest Read full article and references: Anandavalli, S., Borders, L. D., & Kniffin, L. E. (2021). “I am strong. Mentally strong!”: Psychosocial strengths of international graduate students of color. The Professional Counselor , 11 (2), 173–187. doi: 10.15241/sa.11.2.173 | TPC Digest 7 | TPC Digest trengths-based counseling, or counseling approaches wherein clients’ psychosocial strengths constitute the foundation to treatment, has proven to be effective in clients’ recovery. Advocates of strengths-based counseling argue that an explicit focus on clients’ psychosocial assets counters a pathology-saturated narrative and results in more successful treatment outcomes. Although research on and practice of strengths-based counseling have expanded over the last few decades, limited emphasis has been placed on identifying and applying minoritized communities’ strengths in clinical settings. Scholars, especially critical race scholars, have observed that the overshadowing of perceived deficits and “pathologies” when addressing the mental health of minoritized communities can be traced to systemic injustices, including racism, classism, and ableism. For instance, critical race theorists have postulated that by recasting the experiences of minoritized communities through the lens of deficiency, dominant groups exert their power and undue influence over historically oppressed groups. The dominant narratives of hegemonic groups impact the mental health profession as well. In fact, researchers have noted that counselors are frequently unaware of their minoritized clients’ strengths. The paucity of strengths-based research and practice with minoritized clients prompted this inquiry. Specifically, we sought to understand the psychosocial strengths utilized by international graduate students of color (IGSCs) studying in the United States. A review of the mental health literature showed that researchers and practitioners have limited understanding of what specific IGSCs employ in the face of multiple systemic stressors stemming from their racial and immigrant identities. Counseling literature, on the contrary, was laden with predominantly deficit-centric research on international students’ mental health (e.g., “limited” English-speaking skills, homesickness, “adjustment issues”), despite repeated calls to consider strength-oriented variables such as resilience. Thus, this study was initiated in response to a decades-long gap in the counseling literature on the strengths of this population. In our critical race theory–informed research, we invited eligible IGSCs to share their strengths and how these were effectively used in the face of psychological distress. Eight eligible participants responded to our call and were selected. Using interpretive phenomenological analysis, participants’ interviews on their lived experiences and strengths were analyzed, resulting in five themes— familial support , social connections , academic aspirations and persistence , personal growth and resourcefulness , and resistance and critical consciousness . The results of this study highlight that IGSCs possess multiple strengths that they proactively utilize to support their mental health and well-being. The challenge, as demonstrated in our review of the counseling literature, is the pervasive deficit perspective when working with this community. Our hope through this social justice–oriented inquiry is to counter this image and support counselors’ culturally competent practice with IGSCs. S Anandavalli, PhD, NCC, LPC (Intern), is an assistant professor at Southern Oregon University. L. DiAnne Borders, PhD, NCC, ACS, LPC, is a professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Lori E. Kniffin, PhD, is an assistant professor at Fort Hays State University. Correspondence may be addressed to S Anandavalli, Southern Oregon University, 1250 Siskiyou Blvd, Ashland, OR 97520, anandavas@sou.edu. S Anandavalli, L. DiAnne Borders, Lori E. Kniffin “I Am Strong. Mentally Strong!” Psychosocial Strengths of International Graduate Students of Color S