ABSTRACT
This chapter cautions against the insidious potential of therapy to be a colonizing force that nudges clients in the direction of socially sanctioned ways of being. After presenting illustrations of how this routinely and inadvertently occurs, the authors present examples of “walking the talk” of social justice by inviting families to critique and analyze social discourses from within therapeutic conversations. Questions unpack what are often characterized as people’s “personal troubles” in order to see them as relational creations frequently fed by social inequities. Examples include encouraging an exploration of comments by clients about unfairness, as well as collaborative interrogations of taken for granted “shoulds” and other entrenched assumptions about normative ways of being that operate on individuals and families but are not always subject to critical evaluation. The chapter proposes an unmasking of “daily injustices” to open new possibilities for addressing individual and family distress.
