ABSTRACT
In this chapter, connections between oppression and mental health are the basis for approaching individual change through critical consciousness. Critical consciousness is essential for both therapists and clients as a means of generating and maintaining insight into the nature and effects of structural forces on sense of self, with accepting and enhancing features for some and limiting and abusing features for others based on artificial social categories of difference. Oppression is an external force that can become internalized and, through that process, lead to appropriated oppression. Anxiety and depression are clinical manifestations of these experiences.
