Social Justice Focus

Social justice informs our thinking about training in the PhD program. We see social justice in Marriage and Family Therapy education as involving the following key concepts:

Social justice implies an explicit action orientation.
Social justice involves understanding diversity of people and families:
- Diversity includes ability, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity and country of origin, age, social class, religion, and gender (that is, systems that affect individual and family access to power and resources). Particular focus is on underserved and high-risk families.
- Diversity also includes diverse family structures, including extended kinship networks, gay and lesbian families, step-families, etc.
Social justice has policy implications-therapists working from a social justice perspective work to effect supportive family policy that recognizes diversity and improves resiliency, and have a responsibility to participate in social and political systems affecting families.
- Social justice involves recognizing that social and legal systems affect people we work with
Social justice researchers have a responsibility to do “socially informed” research, which is sensitive to diversity.
Social justice clinical practice is focused on helping diverse families and contributes to the positive development of these families and their communities.