Overview
The decolonization movement has become an everyday language in the counseling field. Due to political influences, some debates exist about the real meaning of decolonizing mental health. This textbook attempts to bring the Global South's knowledge about the theoretical bases of decolonization to the North without misappropriating this knowledge and simultaneously providing practical applications and interventions. That is, in this book, the authors will first give the theoretical bases for the decolonization movement, beginning by describing the colonization process as a process of different stages and presenting the work of Enriquez, Dussel, Freire, Quijano, and others as a model of decolonization from a liberatory perspective. Featuring insights from 20 members of historically colonized nations, this bold new textbook reclaims the work that's been both foundational to and obfuscated in the field of counseling by giving voice to neglected populations. This book goes beyond social justice and advocacy, providing practical applications and interventions for anti-oppressive counseling practices. It invites counselors to the work of decolonial liberation and decoloniality so that their practice and care can deeply and richly meet the needs of post-colonized populations.
Full Product Details
Author: Edil Torres Rivera ,
Ivelisse Torres Fernandez
Publisher: American Counseling Association
Imprint: American Counseling Association
ISBN: 9781556200083
ISBN 10: 1556200080
Pages: 375
Publication Date: 05 February 2026
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Not yet available
This item is yet to be released. You can pre-order this item and we will dispatch it to you upon its release.
Reviews
This is a very thoughtful and powerful book, pointing to opportunities to reformulate Counseling theory, research, and practice from decoloniality perspectives, making it more culturally relevant and inclusive. The authors provide a critical and constructive analysis of the Counseling profession from its beginnings to a contemporary shifts, ones inclusive of the Global South and Indigenous Ways of Knowing, often omitted in education and training. Core values of equity, cultural humility, ethical integrity, and social justice ground the proposed reformulation of the profession, ones already recognized but not necessarily integrated in Counseling. The chapters with applications of decoloniality are rich, written by experienced practitioners. The authors do not propose scraping what is taught but rather to adapt the curriculum to integrate decoloniality. Finally, a very instructive glossary of terms for decolonial counseling is provided. I believe this book is transformative and should be recommend reading for all counselor educators. After all, counselor educators hold the responsibility to shape the profession. Dr. Patricia Arredondo President, Arredondo Advisory Group www.arredondoadvisorygroup.com Faculty Fellow, Fielding Graduate University Founding President, National Latinx Psychological Association
Author Information
Dr. Edil Torres Rivera has a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology with a concentration in multicultural counseling from the University of Connecticut, Storrs. He is a professor of counseling and the director of the Latinx Cluster initiative at Wichita State University, Wichita, Kansas. Edil Torres Rivera is native Puerto Rican with a career of over 25 years in counseling. This includes 12 years in the United States Army. He is the president elect of the American Counseling Association (2022-2023). Dr. Torres Rivera research interests are in multicultural counseling, group work, chaos theory, liberation psychology (decolonial approaches), indigenous counseling, Puerto Rican studies, identity development, and gang/prison-related behavior. Specifically, his primary research focuses on complexity and how indigenous healing techniques are a necessary ingredient when working with ethnic minority populations in the United States. Dr. Torres Rivera has additional interests in studying the implications of social injustice and oppression in counseling and psychotherapy with ethnic minorities in the United States. His community work includes consultation services to the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe Council in Nevada, visiting professor to the Universidad del Valle, Guatemala, and he was the director of the Graduate School of Education’s School Counseling Program in Singapore.
