TPC Journal-Vol 10- Issue 2-FULL ISSUE

The Professional Counselor | Volume 10, Issue 2 151 behavior by reminding clients how it is difficult to educate others when they are not ready or willing to expand their worldviews. Similarly, a Chinese proverb states, “If you are planning for a year, sow rice; if you are planning for a decade, plant trees; if you are planning for a lifetime, educate people.” This saying may motivate clients to engage in dialogue with the people in their lives who have committed hurtful microaggressions. Because AAPI clients tend to terminate counseling at earlier rates compared to other racial groups (Sue & Sue, 2016), counselors can use appropriate cultural analogies to demystify the counseling process. For example, counselors may liken the therapeutic process to cooking a traditional noodle dish (Hinton & Jalal, 2019). Analogous to preparing japchae in Korean culture, pancit palabok in Filipino kitchens, or the Chinese dish zhajiangmian, healing from race-based trauma is a process that necessitates patience, creativity, commitment, and flexibility. Discussion The U.S. Surgeon General has recognized how racial and ethnic health disparities are strongly linked to the presence of systemic and ongoing cultural racism (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2000). Counselors who hold dominant social identities (e.g., White, male, heterosexual) are uniquely positioned to use their power and privilege to advocate on behalf of AAPI clients, other POCI, and other marginalized groups by challenging systemic forms of oppression. Indeed, endorsing positive attitudes about diversity (Broido, 2000) and consciously committing to disrupting the cycle of injustice (Waters, 2010) are foundational characteristics of White allies, who seek to end disparity and work to promote the rights of oppressed groups (K. T. Brown & Ostrove, 2013). According to Sue and colleagues (2019), allies actively commit to engaging in actions that dismantle individual and institutional beliefs, practices, and policies that have created barriers for people of color. AAPIs are facing greater rates of racial discrimination, harassment, violence, sinophobic attitudes, and racial slurs because of fears related to COVID-19 and the current sociopolitical climate. Counselors may help AAPI clients heal race-based trauma through the use of culturally adapted strategies such as promoting mindfulness and self-compassion, employing the use of microinterventions, and incorporating culturally appropriate proverbs and analogies in counseling treatment. Counselors are encouraged to adopt strategies to help AAPIs heal from race-based trauma because experiences of racial discrimination, microaggressions, and sinophobic behaviors are not limited to the current pandemic and instead represent longstanding forms of oppression embedded in American history and culture. AAPIs faced marginalization and racial discrimination before the presence of COVID-19 and will likely continue to experience race-related stress long after the discovery of a vaccination. Just as COVID-19 has illuminated disparities within medical, institutional, and political systems, it has also uncovered the enduring ethnocentric attitudes of many Americans. The proliferation of ongoing discrimination of all racial, ethnic, and marginalized groups is representative of a more insidious form of societal sickness. Limitations and Future Areas of Research Although the present article outlines the culturally alert strategies for healing race-based trauma among AAPIs, other marginalized groups face unique challenges related to the unprecedented effects of COVID-19 on social, institutional, and political levels. The deleterious effects of homelessness, social isolation, witnessing of real or perceived racial discrimination or violence, and issues related to LGBTQ individuals because of COVID-19–related issues and policies remain of paramount importance but were not explicitly discussed in this article. Future areas of research may examine the effects of racial discrimination during public health crises and other global events (Wen et al., 2020). Additionally, the ways in which AAPI groups respond to instances of racial discrimination and sinophobia because of COVID-19–related stress remain largely unknown. The manifestation of