TPC Journal-Vol 10- Issue 3-FULL ISSUE

365 S Anandavalli, John J. S. Harrichand, Stacey Diane Arañez Litam Counseling International Students in Times of Uncertainty: A Critical Feminist and Bioecological Approach S Anandavalli, PhD, NCC, LPC-I, is an assistant professor at Southern Oregon University. John J. S. Harrichand, PhD, NCC, CCMHC, ACS, LPC, LMHC, is an assistant professor at State University of New York at Brockport. Stacey Diane Arañez Litam, PhD, NCC, CCMHC, LPCC, is an assistant professor at Cleveland State University. Correspondence may be addressed to S Anandavalli, Clinical Mental Health Counseling, Southern Oregon University, 1250 Siskiyou Blvd, Ashland, OR 97520, anandavas@sou.edu. The Professional Counselor™ Volume 10, Issue 3, Pages 365–375 http://tpcjournal.nbcc.org © 2020 NBCC, Inc. and Affiliates doi:10.15241/sa.10.3.365 Amidst the global health crisis of COVID-19, international students’ safety and well-being is threatened by community- and policy-level animus. In addition to adjusting to a foreign culture, a series of draconian policies and communal hate crimes during the pandemic have placed international students in an especially vulnerable position. In this context, professional counselors must be well prepared to support this community. The authors describe the current sociopolitical events that have adversely impacted international students in the United States. Next, challenges to international students’ mental health are identified to aid counselors’ understanding of this community’s needs. Finally, recommendations grounded in critical feminist and bioecological approaches are offered to facilitate counselors’ clinical and advocacy work with international students. Keywords: COVID-19, international students, critical feminist, bioecological, advocacy COVID-19–related fears have resulted in social and political responses characterized by racial discrimination and xenophobia toward marginalized groups (Devakumar et al., 2020; Litam, 2020; Litam & Hipolito-Delgado, in press), including international students (Anandavalli, 2020; Zhai & Du, 2020). Rates of misleading media portrayals and xenophobic rhetoric substantially increased after President Trump referred to COVID-19 as the “Chinese virus” on March 16, 2020, and have steadily risen across social media platforms (Lyu et al., 2020). Exposure to COVID-19–related racial discrimination has deleterious effects on the mental health and life satisfaction of racial minorities (Litam, 2020; Litam & Oh, in press; Wen et al., 2020), including international students residing in the United States (Zhai & Du, 2020). The extant body of literature has clearly established lower levels of help seeking, barriers to counseling, and increased rates of mental health distress among international students compared to their domestic counterparts (Auerbach et al., 2018; Clough et al., 2018; Sawir et al., 2008; Zhai & Du, 2020). These existing challenges and psychosocial stressors may uniquely combine with current sociopolitical messages and policies to further exacerbate the unique developmental and cultural stressors encountered by international students. Thus, counselors working in various roles (e.g., college counselors, private practitioners) are called to develop a deeper understanding of the ways in which international students are negatively affected by xenophobic policies following COVID-19 and to employ culturally sensitive strategies grounded in systems approaches. Although all counselors working with international students must consider the impact of larger systemic issues on international students’ mental health, college counselors might be in a unique position to support this population because of their close proximity. Counselors must consider how the combined effects of sociopolitical influences, systemic inequity, intersectionality, and COVID-19–related experiences of xenophobia uniquely contribute to the mental health disparities of international students in a post-pandemic reality. It is vital that counselors consider the impact of