The Oxford Handbook of Social Class in Counseling

Social class is a pervasive facet of all lives, regardless of one's own social class and status. One would think its ubiquity would make it necessary for all helping professionals to understand social class and discuss it in therapy and research. Yet social class and classism are one of the most confusing and difficult concepts to understand and integrate into research and counseling practice--mostly due to the relative lack of psychological theories, research, and quantitative data. Fulfiling this need, this handbook summarizes and synthesizes available research on social class and classism in counseling practice and research areas. The 32 chapters included offer up-to-date, fascinating, and provocative applications of social class and classism, as seasoned chapter authors provide an overview of theories related to social class and classism and its application toward research, education, training, and practice. Chapters include comprehensive coverage of: - lifespan issues related to social class, such as unique aspects of social class and classism in the lives of children, adolescents, and older adults - how social class is studied and empirically understood through research, assessment, and practice - implications of social class in career counseling, psychological assessment and diagnosis, and the therapy relationship - how social class is implicated in positive psychology, career and work psychology, and health psychology - social class and classism and its connection to whiteness, racism, sexual orientation, religion and spirituality, and social justice This book offers the first compendium of counseling related resources on social class and classism and will be a comprehensive, must-have reference for professionals and academics in counseling psychology and related fields for years to come.

William Ming Liu, PhD., is Professor and Program Coordinator of Counseling Psychology at The University of Iowa.