414 The Professional Counselor | Volume 13, Issue 4 Implications Given the ubiquitous nature of ableist microaggressions experienced in the disability community, it is vital for counselors to recognize, acknowledge, validate, and be culturally aware of and sensitive to the presence of microaggressions in the lives of PWD, and in turn, consider that socioemotional problems may be a product of microaggressions rather than attributes related to their disability (Chapin et al., 2018; Sue & Spanierman, 2022). However, counselors must understand that PWD may not use the terms microaggressions, ableist, or ableism explicitly, so they need to listen and attend to client stories that communicate such experiences and determine whether or not these experiences are part of their symptomology. Grounded in the AMS domains evident in the study results, we proffer that clients may share stories that communicate instances in which PWD experience: • Helplessness: PWD are given unsolicited assistance, restricted in performing daily activities, denied their independence, or not directly communicated with by others. • Minimization: PWD are required to continuously prove, substantiate, or explain the existence of their disability. • Denial of Personhood: PWD must endure others’ singular focus on their disability or disregard of their additional sociocultural identities. • Otherization: PWD experience others denying, questioning, or expressing irritation regarding accommodation requests or must deal with people assuming that impairment in one area results in impairment in other areas. Failure to appropriately attend to these inequities experienced by PWD or to engage in cultural humility can lead to early termination, impede the working alliance, and/or result in additional psychological harm (Sue & Spanierman, 2022). Because counselors are products of their environments, they are at risk of developing unconscious biases toward PWD with visible and hidden disabilities, and left unchecked, they can unintentionally communicate these biases within the counseling process. Biased beliefs can unwittingly drive actions that can damage the counseling relationship and result in microaggressions, including seemingly well-intended, innocuous actions like holding a door (i.e., Helplessness) or unilaterally determining a treatment plan without client input (i.e., Otherization). Such actions can usurp the autonomy of clients with disabilities and result in denying clients their basic ethical rights. Additionally, counselors may inadvertently overlook disability identity when they do not include ability/disability status or questions about disability or chronic illness as part of their intake and assessment procedures (i.e., Denial of Personhood; Cook et al., 2020). Without this knowledge, they may mistakenly minimize a client’s hidden, undisclosed disability because they were unaware of it (i.e., Minimization), yet our results support that this may occur with apparent/disclosed disabilities, too. Consequently, we recommend counselors provide intake questions that give clients the opportunity to identify their disabilities, to include additional self-determined relevant information about their disability, and to express how they would like the counselor to refer to their disability. Furthermore, counselors must follow up about intake form information during the clinical interview (Cook et al., 2020). PWD with multiple intersecting nondominant sociocultural identities experience the inherent complexities associated with possessing overt cultural identities (e.g., POC) and concealed cultural identities (e.g., sexual/affectual orientation). It is essential for counselors to explore clients’ identities that are most important to them (i.e., identity salience; Hunt et al., 2006) and their experiences of
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