13 TPC Digest 13 As a group of socially conscious mental health counseling students, we developed and facilitated an SJA group to learn about tangible ways to engage in social justice action. Using the S-Quad model developed by Drs. Toporek and Ahluwalia, we formed and facilitated an SJA group for our peers. Being unable to locate any studies regarding peer-led SJA groups for counseling students, we hope to contribute something novel to the counseling literature and encourage counseling students to better understand and grow into their roles as social justice advocates. This paper serves as a reflection of our experiences engaging in the process. We describe the S-Quad model, explain the group structure, outline the proposed learning objectives, and provide the curriculum of the group. In addition, we offer our reflections on the group and extract salient collective themes that have come about through our processing: fear, judgment, self-efficacy, and humility. As a result of our reflective process about the formation and experience of this group, we have identified potential implications for the counseling profession and counselor education training programs. Per our experience, we believe that social justice counseling—and SJA skills more specifically—must have a more prominent place in counseling curricula. Potential solutions may include consistently operationalizing social justice counseling and advocacy in counselor training programs. Furthermore, it is imperative to have more guidance provided by our institutional standards such as CACREP’s, and to have more ethical codes around SJA in the ACA Code of Ethics. CACREP requirements establish content that should be covered throughout all coursework, rather than in specific classes. We urge counseling leaders to consider the importance of SJA and the core role it plays in our healing work and our counseling identity. Sunanda M. Sharma, MS, NCC, LPC (NJ), LPCC (OH), is a lecturer at Wright State University. Jennifer E. Bianchini, BFA, is a master’s student at Montclair State University. Zeynep L. Cakmak, MA, LAC (NJ), is a mental health counselor at Montclair State University. MaryRose Kaplan, PhD, NCC, LPC, is a school counselor and adjunct professor at Montclair State University. Muninder K. Ahluwalia, PhD, is a professor at Montclair State University. Correspondence may be addressed to Sunanda M. Sharma, 3640 Colonel Glenn Hwy., Millett Hall 370, Dayton, OH 45435, sharmas1@montclair.edu.
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