Counseling faculty, student and alumna coauthor article on forming support groups addressing racial injustice

Two Rider faculty members, along with a student and alumna, have co-authored an article offering advice on how to start support groups that address issues related to racial injustice. The group hopes to present their findings at the 2021 New Jersey Counseling Association conference. 

“I looked through newsletters published by various professional organizations in counseling and counselor education, and I realized there isn’t a lot of literature focused on anti-racism and addressing these issues in the United States today,” says Dr. Aubrey Daniels, assistant professor in Rider's Department of Graduate Education, Leadership and Counseling. Daniels is one of the article's authors, in addition to Dr. Eri Millrod, assistant professor of dance/movement therapy, Sravya Gummaluri '20 and Demi Banchs, current master's in clinical mental health counseling student.

“I saw a few articles about how faculty had responded to Trayvon Martin, but it was very minimal. So we decided to try to fill this gap and share our own experiences and steps that we think could lead to a successful group," says Daniels.

The article, "A Shift to Critical Pedagogy in Action: Counseling Students Mobilize an Online Support Group during Racial Injustice and the COVID-19 Pandemic," was inspired by the creation of a support group at Rider last spring. Like many people worldwide, Daniels was deeply upset when she saw the video of George Floyd’s murder last spring. “I was saddened, horrified and disgusted,” she says.

She realized she was in a unique position to help others who were experiencing similar feelings. Daniels organized a support group to address not only that incident, but also other recent racial injustices including those involving Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor. 

“It’s important for me, as a faculty member, to acknowledge social issues that are happening as they occur so they don’t get swept under the rug and forgotten about,” she says.

The group has been meeting frequently and growing since June. It consists of faculty, staff, students, alumni and members of Rider's Counseling Services. Daniels and her colleagues began to see the need for similar support groups at other colleges and universities, which became the impetus for writing the article. 

For colleges and universities that wish to start their own support groups, they recommend five steps:

1) Taking immediate action: Seeing videos of racial injustice can re-traumatize people who have previously experienced their own racial trauma, Daniels explains.  “As counseling faculty, we need to immediately respond and care for the students,” she says, adding that swift action sends a message that what happened is important. “Ignoring these events would teach the student that this isn’t a big deal.”

2) Calling a community into action through effective advertisement and participant recruitment: Once the decision has been made to create the support group, the next step is generating awareness. Suggested techniques include social media, text and email blasts, and posting flyers around campus. 

3) Setting group goals and best practices as it relates to anti-racist counseling and counselor education: Those who plan to take a leadership role should convene to discuss a plan for the support session. “It’s really important to meet ahead of time and share what you think the purpose should be,” says Daniels. “This is what’s going to attract group members. Stating a concrete mission in our emails helped us get a high quality group of people who had the same mission.” 

4) Emphasizing the importance of self-care when unpacking anti-racism: “Many counselors, including Dr. Millrod and myself, are very adamant about the fact that the entire body is impacted by trauma or stressful events,” says Daniels. One of the ways the group addresses this is by incorporating activities such as mindfulness, exercise, and dance/movement therapy into its meetings. 

5) Identifying crisis resources and readiness to intervene: “We want to make the support group a safe space, and that includes always having crisis resources available if anyone feels that they might need to talk to somebody outside of our group,” Daniels explains. “We’re always available at the end of group in case people needed more time to process, but it’s really important to also be ready and have an action plan if somebody is struggling and needs outside services.”

For as much success has the support group has had, Daniels is still looking to see where improvements can be made, including finding ways to make it more approachable. “People are a little nervous to attend groups like this,” she says. “It’s uncomfortable to talk about racism and social and racial injustice. Some people are worried about saying the wrong thing, so they’d rather not go at all because they don’t want to offend anybody.”

She adds that while attendees to this point have primarily been female students of color, one of the group’s goals is to increase the diversity among its participants. “We’re trying to figure out how we can open the group to more people. In the literature there is no guidance as to how to run a group like this, or how to retain membership and appeal to both allies as well as people of color and make it a safe space. So that’s another project I’m working on, because I think more needs to be known about the human mind and social cues and attitudes about these discussions.”

Those who are interested in learning more about Rider University’s support group or how to organize a group at another college or university can contact Dr. Daniels at [email protected].