Affiliation:
1. Department of Educational Psychology Northern Arizona University Flagstaff Arizona USA
2. Department of Counseling University of North Carolina at Charlotte Charlotte North Carolina USA
3. Department of Educational Leadership University of North Carolina at Charlotte Charlotte North Carolina USA
Abstract
AbstractAmong eating disorder (ED) professionals, counselors of color (COCs) are underrepresented. Given the prevalence of EDs among people of all racial and ethnic backgrounds, as well as the low number of COCs working in the profession and its problematic implications, this study is warranted to include the experiences of COCs in EDs and understand how to grow the specialty with counselors of all backgrounds. In this study, we interviewed 10 COCs and analyzed transcripts using a post‐intentional phenomenological design. Tentative manifestations of unprepared, isolating spaces, unspoken knowing, and exhaustion, as well as provocations of cultural inclusion, changemaker, and vulnerability, emerged. We present implications, limitations, and research considerations.