Applying Critical Discourse Analysis to Broaching Behaviors and Racial Discourse During Family Therapy With Counselors in Training

Abstract

This study examined how Whiteness enters family therapy racial discussion between families of color and family counselors in training (CITs) when involving broaching methods. Critical discourse analysis (CDA) and Fairclough’s analysis framework was used to identify the flow of power in racial attitudes by focusing on how language limits or advances dominant thought in the family therapy setting. A detailed discussion inclusive of implications for counselor education, clinical practice, and future research is noted.

Keywords

broaching race critical discourse analysis family therapy counselors in training

Scholars have explored how counseling programs facilitate training through a color-blind lens and with a view that race is a social construct that only people of color experience (Bonilla-Silva & Ashe, 2014). Color blindness ignores racist attitudes and justifies the power structures that oppress individuals and groups based on race (Das et al., 2024; Chao, 2013); while counselors in training (CITs) are presented with the view that White people are not racial beings (Dottolo & Kaschak, 2015). Das et al. (2024) found that color blindness prohibits the recognition of racial oppression, while Dempsey et al. (2016) found a correlation between lower empathy toward marginalized racial groups and higher color-blind racial attitudes (Das et al., 2024; Dempsey et al., 2016). Such an approach to competence training results in neutral spaces where racial discussions are omitted, and curriculums that center the dominant narrative of Whiteness (Liera, 2020; Castagno, 2014). Whiteness, itself, is described as the social systems and power structures that give advantage to the White racial group at the expense of other racial groups, while allowing White people to view themselves as devoid of race (Hazelbaker & Mistry, 2022; Helms, 2017). As such, a lack of intentional training of CITs on engaging in racial clinical discourse prevents critical analysis of oppressive systems and racist ideologies that reflect in the issues brought to sessions by people of color. Lack of racial discourse engagement also maintains the view that repressive racial attitudes are unimportant or nonexistent.

Nevertheless, broaching has been offered as a strategy to facilitate discourse during therapy sessions about racial concerns that contributes to the client's presenting clinical issues (Day-Vines et al., 2007; Day-Vines et al., 2020). Broaching is described as behavior that displays “consistent and ongoing attitude of openness with a genuine commitment by the counselor to continually invite the client to explore issues of diversity” (Day-Vines et al., 2007, p. 2). The process entails the counselor prompting discourse around or responding to racial stimuli during therapy. The counselor is tasked with not only recognizing racial or culturally based stimuli, but to communicate this cultural recognition and understanding into impactful; clinical practice that “alleviates psychological distress, promotes client empowerment, enhances problem-solving, and fosters resilience” (Day-Vines et al., 2018, p. 1).

A lack of engagement in racial discussion is particularly noted in family counseling training, as traditional family counseling theories emerged from Eurocentric and colonial views whereby racial discussions are ignored (Cottrell-Boyce, 2022; Hardiman & Keehn, 2012; Walsdorf et al., 2020). There is little in the existing literature that focuses on how racial discussions during clinical family sessions are influenced by existing social attitudes and dominant narratives. Previous research focused on discussion of race, ethnicity, and culture within the supervisory relationship (Lawless et al., 2001), and looking at how licensed family therapists position themselves and make meaning of their client's experiences through the lens of White privilege (Cottrell-Boyce, 2022). One qualitative study centered White family therapists and White CITs in their construction of Whiteness and how this influenced what the White CITs did in therapy (Wallis & Singh, 2014). The findings showed that Whiteness and a blindness to race prohibited the development of cultural competency.

However, researchers have yet to explore how discursive practices amongst family therapy CITs and their clients reflect social attitudes through the dominant lens of Whiteness. This study seeks to utilize critical discourse analysis (CDA) to examine how Whiteness enters family therapy discussion between families of color and family CITs when involving broaching methods. More precisely, the purpose of this study is to (a) highlight the broaching strategy, (b) examine the consequences of Whiteness, (c) apply the CDA approach to family counseling sessions and (d) discuss the finding through the lens of power and dominance. The study reflects a gap in the field's understanding of how to prepare counselors to broach conversations of race.

Race

Research has found that one's membership to a particular racial group impacts their structural and social experiences and is reflected in their thoughts and feelings (Verkuyten, 2016). Furthermore, researchers have found that ones’ race, racial group membership, and racial experiences, can result in physical and psychological distress that resemble the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (Lee et al., 2023). Examples of such phenomena include race-based traumatic stress injury (RBTSI), historical trauma (group trauma effecting multiple generations), intergenerational trauma (renewed generational trauma through learning about events such as the Holocaust), and post-traumatic slave syndrome (PTSS) (Carter, 2007; Lee et al., 2023; Milner et al., 2010; Phipps & Degges-White, 2014).

The effects of racism and racially charged discrimination, whether personally experienced or witnessed, may also threaten the sense of safety of an individual (Carter, 2007). Recent studies show that Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) clientele prefer to have counselors who share the same race, or who identify with a non-White culture (Ilagan & Heatherington, 2021). When this occurs, research has shown a higher session attendance and symptom improvement, as BIPOC clients feel safer speaking to someone who share similar racial experiences (Kim & Kang, 2018; Spoont et al., 2017). As cross cultural therapy is increasing, counselors need to go beyond mere cultural awareness and sensitivity, to being racially informed (Chang & Yoon, 2011; Li et al., 2024). Therefore, it is essential that CITs acquire knowledge around race and racial experiences, to conceptualize, speak to, and integrate the concept during clinical work.

Whiteness

It is important to frame what race is within the US context in which this research was undertaken. Generally, race was used to differentiate people based on physical traits, or used as a identifier based upon the geographical locations of one's ancestors (Haslanger, 2019; Lenes et al., 2020). Historically, in the United States, race is a sociopolitical construct lodged into the colonialization process that justified the oppression of BIPOC, particularly the trans-Atlantic slave trade, African slavery, and the displacement of Native American Indians (Haslanger, 2019). Significantly the hypodescent or “one drop rule” categorized anyone with any genetic links to African ancestry as Black, therefore preventing any claim to being part of the dominant White power structure. The hypodescent rule continues to complicate people's view of race in the United States (Brooks et al., 2021).

Although the view toward has race changed over time based on political and social consciousness, it is still embedded in Whiteness (Webber et al., 2013). Currently, race has been a central issue in the fight against diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies, and critical race theory, the 2023 supreme court ruling against affirmative action in higher education, and actions in some states to prevent race-based education in public schools (Baldwin Clark, 2023; Goodman-Scott et al., 2024; UCLA School of Law, 2024). These events represent systemic racial injustice that utilize established institutions to oppress BIPOC communities, while giving advantage and protection to the White racial group (Castle et al., 2019). Such covert racial inequities lead to higher rates of depression, anxiety, and general psychological disturbance for the BIPOC population (Carter et al., 2013). Moreover, as the construct of race is connected to White supremacy and Whiteness, counselor education is yet to overcome the difficulty of talking about race in the classroom and clinical space (Day-Vines et al., 2018; Day-Vines et al., 2022a; Day-Vines et al., 2022b).

Broaching and Family Therapy

Counselors, who do not intentionally broach discussion about racial concerns and influences on a client, are ignoring a key life component experienced by the individual. Not addressing race also advances the dominant power structure of Whiteness by relying on clinical strategies that are devoid of culturally responsive and antiracist components (Day-Vines et al., 2018). For example, consider a case where a counselor seeing a client who immigrated to the United States from Venezuela at 10 years old. Now, at the age of 26 the client is seeking help to manage her anxiety and stress balancing college requirements, family requirements, and her relationship with her African American boyfriend. The counselor who uses broaching would be intentionally curious and ask, “You shared that you are Venezuelan, and your boyfriend identifies as African American, I wonder if the difference racial backgrounds is relevant to the issues you bring up here?.” Also, the counselor could ask “how does your racial and cultural background impact your family's expectations of you?.” Broaching therefore allows for a deeper conversation where the clients can be fully seen; it enhances therapeutic outcomes, counselor effectiveness and increases client empowerment through various types of counseling approaches (Day-Vines et al., 2018; Hare, 2015; Lee et al., 2022).

Traditional Eurocentric family therapies emerged in the early 20^th century to ignore non-Western cultures and promote a White, two-parent, heterosexual family standard (Walsdorf et al., 2020). Furthermore, traditional Eurocentric views value collectivism over individualism, nuclear over extended family structures, and using Eurocentric clinical approaches over “storytelling” as a therapeutic tool (Jordan, 2022). Some postmodern family systems counseling models have recognized the need to integrate diverse cultural perspectives such as narrative family therapy (Stokes & Poulsen, 2014). Others have extended the systems approach further by integrating sociopolitical and social justice perspectives including socioculturally attuned family therapy and multisystemic theory (Henggeler & Borduin, 1990; Knudson-Martin et al., 2019; McDowell et al., 2018). Many family counselor education programs focus on the Eurocentric family models (Bowen, Structural, Psychoanalytic) and family therapy curriculum that exclude non-Western perspectives (Yzaguirre et al., 2022). In this way, Whiteness still dominates discourse in family counseling environments by disregarding the racial or cultural issues of families of color.

The broaching technique facilitates racial conversation and dismantles the dominant Eurocentric process that prevents it. As family CITs are often the gatekeepers to discussions of race entering the counseling session, it is critical that they can engage in racial discourse. CITs need to understand the systemic influences on what prompts those conversations as well as how they play out with clients (14-19). The current study highlights the verbal interaction between family CITs and families of color while using broaching in racial discourse. Specifically, the study will investigate how these conversations reflect the power of Whiteness, or limits in its dominance. Implications for counselor education, clinical practice, and research will be discussed. Our main research question is:

How does discourse about race between family counselors in training and clients reflect power and dominance?

Methodology

CDA is a multidisciplinary methodology used to identify the flow of power in social phenomena, especially focusing on how language or non-verbal behaviors limit or advance discourses (such as Whiteness) in a particular setting (van Dijk, 1993; Fairclough & Wodak, 1997; Flowerdew & Richardson, 2018; Wodak & Meyer, 2008). Further, discourse analysis has been effectively applied in psychotherapy to understand conversational process and meaning within sessions (Amplianiti et al., 2017; Smoliak & Strong, 2018). Discourse itself may be defined as a dialectical process produced by and between multiple parties and worldviews; it is “larger than a single utterance” and both contributes to and is formed from existing ideology and models of identity and power (Fairclough, 1992, 1995). Thus, a critical approach to discourse analysis investigates how language reflects and reproduces power, meaning and ideologies while acknowledging the effects of oppression and systemic inequity (Woofitt, 2011). CDA is an analytical approach that intentionally identifies discourse in a power-based structure, making it an effective method of analyzing a counseling session in which there is an inherent power dynamic between the counselor and client (Mullet, 2018). For example, counselors are often the gatekeepers of discussions on race as a result of the inherent power they hold in a clinical space, where their approach or avoidance of the topic may be both a result of dominant discourse around the taboo of broaching race, or a culture of “niceness” (McIntyre, 1997; Wiborg, 2022) while also be a method of unintentionally promoting that same discourse.

Data Collection

The researchers viewed and analyzed videotaped family counseling sessions that were conducted over approximately 1 hour and comprised of both in-person and virtual sessions, focusing primarily on conversations related to race and racial identity. Tapes were compiled from master's level CITs at urban universities in the southern US region. Tape recordings were obtained through informed consent by the counselors and stored virtually on HIPAA-compliant software. To conduct the CDA analysis, researchers first viewed the recruited counseling tapes independently, reflecting on the content and conversations regarding race and racial identity that came about because of counselors’ broaching behaviors. The researchers then consulted on analyzing the textural components that emerged and reflected on their own experiences while viewing the material.

Data Analysis

The Fairclough three-dimensional model was used as a theoretical framework and an analysis guideline to ensure an in-depth examination of the family therapy sessions by implementing the three step process consisting of the textual, discursive, and socio-cultural dimensions (Fairclough, 2015). The first step or the textual analysis consists of examining and describing the linguistic features. Textual analysis describes how the linguistic features contribute to the construction of particular discourses and ideologies (Atmawijaya, 2024). Here is where one must ask, “what is the attitude, bias or values of speaker?” and “what is the attitude, bias or values toward the subject?.”

The second step or discursive analysis is a recognition that text does not exist in isolation but is influenced by contextual factors and existing power relations (Atmawijaya, 2024). During this step there is an interpretation of the interaction between the text and its creation (Feldman, 2024). Here is where one will ask “what subject is being made important?.” Deeper analysis shows how the way individuals talk about a subject can change people's views (Foucault, 2013).

The third step or the socio-cultural analysis explains the linkage to the broader social context. The role of society in the discourse production, the social settings in which the discourse occurred, and the role of ideology and power are all to be explicitly elucidated (Atmawijaya, 2024; Fairclough, 2015; Feldman, 2024). Here is where one must ask, “Who or what is made powerful or diminished?” (Foucault, 2013). Specific analysis tools were used to describe, interpret, and explain, including languages choices, active versus passive voice, genre, social context, and assumed interpretations (Fairclough, 2015; Woodbridge, 2023). An exploration into social and historical context and power dynamics helps with the socio-cultural analysis step.

Positionality

The first author identifies as a Black, multiracial, and multiethnic cisgender female who is deeply interested in how power and dominance create and sustains the marginalization of certain social groups. She is a counselor educator and a licensed professional counselor. The second author identifies as a White, cisgender female. She is a counselor educator and a licensed professional counselor and licensed marriage and family counselor and board approved supervisor. Both authors’ pedagogy and supervision intentionally integrate broaching and training in identifying power dynamics as a systemic practitioner. Consistently throughout the study both authors discussed and reflected on their ingrained views, including their common belief that counselor education programs are situated within cultural and educational systems that cannot be distinguished from systems that promote and uphold Whiteness as power. Both authors have experience working with marriage and family CITs, and clients of diverse backgrounds and provided scholarship through a social justice and activist lens.

Findings

Recent articles using CDA, have focused on one document or text (Atmawijaya, 2024; Woodbridge, 2023). The authors have chosen to share three distinct examples of family therapy discourse as the objects of analysis.

Discourse #1

The following discourse relays a family counseling session, where a grandmother and her daughter are present. The family identifies as multiracial, but of Panamanian heritage. The counselor is a White male in his last semester of internship, who grew up in the southern United States. The grandmother is having trouble relating to her granddaughter (not present) but finds that the culture and values she grew up with in Panama followed by her granddaughter.

CIT: How does being a Black woman from Panama, um you when you were in the workforce, or like you in life in general? Like did you feel like, yeah—what was the impact of that?

Client (GM): (pauses) In the workforce?

CIT: or just I guess in life. like did, what were the expectations on you? did it play a role in…I know were an immigrant working for the government as an immigrant as a Black woman.

Client (GM): Well um, coming from Panama, I do think that living in Panama helped me a lot. But in Panama it's not just the girls, there was four of us—and we was pretty much responsible for the household.

A textural analysis shows that the CIT uses a passive voice here when broaching the grandmother’s race. By using passive speech, the CIT foregrounds the client's Panamanian heritage and workforce experience but places her racial makeup in the background. While this denotes attitudes of a lack of confidence and discomfort with broaching race, it also confused the client as to what was being asked of her. This is obvious when the client responds for clarification by stating, “in the workforce?.” In this case the CIT's attempt at broaching came off as an avoidance to call attention to the client's race.

It must be noted that although the family identified as multiracial, the CIT identified the client as “Black.” This indicates a bias of the CIT, as one assuming someone's identify based upon physical attributes. Moreover, the assumption reflects broader social influences of how individuals are placed into racial categories based on the hypodescent rule. Further interpretation shows the social context in which the discourse lies. As the CIT represent as a White American, his interpretation of “Black” may be different than that of the client, as they would draw from different social and cultural contexts. Therefore, although the CIT mentioned “Black” again in further questioning and added the label of “immigrant,” the client seemingly dismissed those identities and focused on the expectation of young women in the workforce. In this case, although “Black” and “immigrant” are emphasized, they are not central issues to the client, or it reflects a lack of understanding of what is being asked.

There is a power dynamic present around this discourse. The CIT is the therapist and deemed as the knowledgeable professional by the client. The client is older, with English being her second language, and she has expressed an insecurity around the culture in The United States. The words that are used during broaching and the way in which identities are placed upon client (Black and immigrant) are important to consider, as it may reflect a diminishment of one, while empowering the other. Is this case, the CIT's questioning was not clearly or confidently stated, so it may relegate a powerless upon the client that is not there.

Discourse #2

In the following family counseling session, a mother and two sons are present. The mother identified as White, while she identified her sons as multiracial. The CIT is a Black female in her last semester of internship. The younger son, who was the identified patient (IP), had gotten into trouble at school that week for calling another student the “N” word.

CIT: (Directed to younger son): “Is it hard talking about it considering I am Black?

Client Younger Son: I don’t, I just don’t like to talk about it with anybody!

Client Mom: And it has nothing to do with color, because we have a lot of minorities in our family. So, I try to explain to them that there are words that are not very nice, that were their father's favorite words to use for them particularly when they were younger, and it always really bothered me. So, we try not to use those words. [looks at older son] Gator bait.

Client Older Son: I don’t care about that!

Client Mom (looking at counselor): …that's a derogatory word used for Cajuns and their father was half German, half Cajun. So, he used to call them gator bait all the time when they were little, and of course, what pops in my mind is when the dangle (acting as if she is holding something and dangling it over something) [laughing]

Client Older Son: Oh my god…Mom!

CIT: [counselor jumps up] Ok! That is all our time, I will see you’all next week.

Using then active versus passive voice as an analysis tool, one can see how the client's mother foregrounds her racial attitudes as well as that of the family. She notes that her son's avoidance around talking about the incident at school to a Black counselor has nothing to do with race, because members of their family are “minorities.” In this way the client's mother centered her racial attitudes rather than allowing her son to critically reflect on his difficulty with discussing the topic. Her statement reflects color blindness, and a defensiveness in not wanting her or her family to appear racist (Effron, 2014). Further analyzing the discourse, the use of social context and assumed interpretations surfaces. The sharing of the term “gator bait” by the client's mother is proposed as “favorite words” used by the client's father as a term of endearment, but at the same time the mother acknowledges that the term is “not very nice.” Depending on one's historical, social, and cultural source of interpretation, the term would be received differently by various listeners. Additionally, it denotes an assumption that the term should not be taken seriously as the mother not only teases her son with the term, but then proceeds to physically dangles her hand. What is emphasized is the distortion of a historical racist act and the interpretation from the client's mother that that is no longer important.

Further analyzing the social and historical context shows relations to power structures. Although the CIT is deemed the professional in the room, the context of the discourse unsettles the control the CIT may have felt. The CIT began with a confident broaching question, but ended with abruptly ended the session after seemingly feeling less assured during the discourse. Language has consequences and the discourse seemingly impacted the CIT negatively.

Discourse #3

This third discourse takes place during a family therapy session with a 14-year-old girl and her mother. The daughter was referred to therapy because she was acting out at school and becoming sullen at home. The family identifies as Latina, specifically from Mexican descent. The CIT identifies as Asian-American. The daughter states that she has been targeted by the school principal and being lied about.

Client (daughter): so, the principal told me I will be written up, but I wasn’t late for class! She said that my grades must be slipping, but I get straight ‘A's’!

CIT: Do you think demographics are at play?

Client Mom: Demographics? I don’t think they’re racist…?

Client (daughter): Well, all my friends are Black, but I don’t think she has problems with Mexicans. But she did say to me and my friend last week, when we were talking, “what do you have in that class? A C or a D?”. I told her, “No, we got 100% on the last quiz!”

CIT: Wow! She is really exerting her power. Do you want to work on that with me? We don’t share the same identity and I don’t share your experiences, but I hope we can work together.

In this session, the client clearly explains incidents where she feels she is being treated unfairly. Both the daughter and the mother express hesitancy that race or culture is a factor in the treatment by the principal when the CIT broaches the topic. The mother, expressed disbelief, but then her tone ends with a question. However, the daughter is willing to engage in conversation with the CIT and explore the possibility in finding an answer to her presenting issues. Further, considering the language choices as an analysis tool, the daughter describing the principal's assumption that she has low grades conveys her understanding of being treated unfairly and not judged on facts. When the CIT broached about demographics, the subject of discrimination is considered, and the power exerted by the principal is highlighted. The CIT also noted cultural and social context by asking if the difference in her identity and the families would prevent further counseling. This session displayed a CIT who was more confident with broaching and investigating if race played a factor in the client's oppression.

Discussion and Implications

Fairclough's (2015) analytical framework was used to conduct a CDA on family counseling sessions between CITs and families of color while using broaching in racial discourse. Fairclough's (2015) tools of analysis were integrated to purposefully describe, interpret, and explain the discourses. Both discourses reflected how text structure and language choices, reflected color blindness and racial attitudes that reemphasize the social systems and power structures of Whiteness. Moreover, the discourses confirmed, that although the broaching strategy exists to facilitate and allow for deeper racial discussions, in both cases the family CIT's were unprepared to not only initiate racial broaching and the consequent discussion effectively.

Implications for Counselor Education

It is important for instructors to have a higher ethnic and racial identity development level and experience with broaching applicability experience in comparison to the students. The instructor should be mindful of different cultural competency skills and framework applicability development levels of the students and be intentional in demonstrating patience and clarity in teaching. Instructors should attend to their own biases, views and normalization of language. The instructor may need to lead by example in broaching behaviors and cultural competency specific to racial discourse.

Implications for Counseling Practice

Skilled broaching behaviors and competency around racial discourse can facilitate a paradigmatic shift in understanding the lived experiences of clients of color or varied ethnic backgrounds. The finding of the study illuminates the role of power and dominance in maintaining a standard social context that undermines people of color. Counselors should seek training in broaching, and attend to their own biases, views and normalization of language. Counselors should be competent in culturally responsive frameworks.

Implications for Research

Future research can explore the broaching behaviors and discourse analysis on the clinical skills of licensed mental health counselors. The client experience may be highlighted to see how it affects their clinical outcomes. The decision making process and established policies around racial discourse in higher education institutions may be examined. Additionally, the outcomes can implore researchers to develop an assessment that measures the discourse skills of counselors. Studies using quantitative methods can explore effects on the therapeutic alliance and clinical outcomes. Furthermore, researchers are urged to examine the complexity of this topic around the current resurgence of discussion around race and color blindness.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research was supported by the 2023 Virginia Association for Counselor Education and Supervision (VACES) Research Grant.

ORCID iDs

Philippa Chin

Kaitlin J. Hinchey

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