TPC Journal-Vol 9- Issue 1

The Professional Counselor | Volume 9, Issue 1 29 different area and this is all kind of a learning curve. They’ve been good about helping me acclimate to the area.” Similarly, eight participants shared that ongoing supervision was helpful to abate adopting negative stereotypes and to address de-sensitization to clients’ needs, particularly when seeing clients who perpetually faced hardships. Lola discussed the benefits of having a professional support system among her colleagues to manage the demands of counseling in rural poverty. She stated, “We support each other personally when professional issues begin to impact our personal lives.” Furthermore, Lola described that ongoing supervision was “very helpful and necessary” as it provided her the opportunity to “check in” with herself and assess how she was managing the demands of her work. Seven participants shared that receiving professional support reinforced ongoing self-awareness. For example, Sadie stated, “I think [it’s important] being willing to recognize that I’m not perfect . . . being willing to say here’s a place where I need to improve.” Sadie also expressed that it was important for her to seek supervision or personal mental health services to not allow her personal frustrations to “bleed over” into her client sessions. Likewise, Jade explained that supervision and taking continuing education credits regarding cultural differences were optimal to her success. In alignment with the constructs in the MSJCCs, the participants acknowledged the importance of engaging in critical self-reflection to take an inventory of their skills, beliefs, and attitudes (Ratts et al., 2016) that impact the services they provided to marginalized clients living in rural poverty. Overall, seeking ongoing supervision and engaging in professional development activities were necessary to prevent adopting stereotypes and to continue advocacy efforts. Using participants’ voices and the lens of the MSJCCs, we illuminated the essence of providing mental health counseling in rural, persistently poor communities. The participants described the importance of showing an appreciation for clients’ worldviews and life experiences and how their counseling services encompassed varied approaches to service delivery and non-traditional counseling methods to engage rural, impoverished clients in the treatment process. Participants frequently engaged in individual and systems advocacy with and on behalf of their clients and described how having professional support was necessary to provide culturally responsive mental health counseling in rural, persistently poor communities. The findings serve as the basis for the following discussion. Discussion This study explored the experiences of mental health counselors working in rural, impoverished communities and identified ways counselors incorporated social justice advocacy using the lens of the MSJCCs to identify advocacy skills and interventions. We found that counselors who work with clients in rural poverty appreciate their clients’ worldviews and life experiences, value their counseling relationships, alter service delivery formats, engage in advocacy, and seek ongoing professional support and development opportunities. Specifically, the first theme captured how counselors in the study expressed an appreciation for their clients’ worldviews and life experiences, as described in the MSJCCs’ client worldview domain. Counselors recognized that various contextual factors, such as family structure, nuances in the natural support systems, less access to resources, as well as how race and social class status shaped their clients’ worldviews, influenced their utilization of mental health treatment. This finding lends support to previous literature associated with examining how economic disadvantages and rurality influence mental health care services and literacy (Deen & Bridges, 2011; Kim & Cardemil, 2012). Consistent with the MSJCCs’ (Ratts et al., 2015) client worldview domain, the counselors explored and appreciated clients’ history and life experiences, and acknowledged the clients’ “resourcefulness” as a strength.