Structural Vulnerability Framework: An Application to Professional Counselors

Abstract

Professional counselors address systemic factors that underlie client wellness and utilization of counseling services. Despite growing attention toward social determinants of health and systems-based perspectives for multiculturalism, social justice, and advocacy, employing counseling interventions to address structural inequities remains nascent. Exploring structural vulnerabilities can be instrumental in reducing stigma for historically marginalized communities and their engagement with mental health services. This article introduces the structural vulnerability framework (SVF), a model of eight domains of structural vulnerability, as a tool to enhance structural humility, leverage social determinants of health, and offer systemic interventions in counseling practice. By outlining the framework, we proffer strategies that correspond to a comprehensive set of interventions and underscore the existing body of culturally responsive counseling research. We discuss future directions for research to apply domains of the SVF.