“Unless everyone’s covert guerilla-like social justice practitioners…”: A preliminary study exploring social justice in UK counselling psychology.

Background: The discipline of applied psychology has begun to reflect more explicitly on the social justice values and practices of the profession. This paper presents the first stage of research in a larger project aiming to explore ‘social justice’ in applied psychology in the UK, and takes as its focus the branch of counselling psychology. Aim: To explore how members of the UK counselling psychology profession understand social justice, and act on their commitment to it. Method: Interviews were conducted with six individuals who had at least a moderate interest in and commitment to social justice, as assessed by the Social Issues Questionnaire. Data were analysed using techniques from the grounded theory approach. Findings: Themes included participants’ understandings of social justice both on a theoretical and a personal level, and the perceived fit between social justice and counselling psychology. Participants reported a perception of a lack of social justice action and reflected on potential difficulties associated with engaging in social justice action. Discussion: Implications for the international counselling psychology profession are reflected on. Directions for further research are outlined.