This is a film that would be beneficial to anyone working in counseling to better understand the experiences of people with disabilities and the continuing fight for civil rights for the disability community. For rehabilitation focused classes, it provides an overview of an essential historical period for disability advocacy in a personal and impactful way. It would also be at home in a multicultural class, as it refuses to pull punches and would help students to examine disability related biases and assumptions. It is a thought provoking, engaging film encourages discussion of an often overlooked topic. Crip Camp dares us to go beyond the societal stigma surrounding disability and instead is unapologetically, joyfully anti-ableist.

Music Within is at times funny and relatable, and at times a somber reminder of how far we have come in disability advocacy and how far we still need to go. Counselor educators may find this movie helpful in covering basic disability topics. This film is best set in the context of a broader conversation of the disability rights movement, as it is told through the perspective of a small number of characters. While Music Within’s later scenes clearly show the impact of societal changes, it does not do justice to the monumental effort and complexity of the fight for civil rights in which disability advocates are still engaged in presently.

This Netflix-original series highlights the experiences of a multi-generational Cuban-American family living in the same household. The main character, Penelope, is a working Army veteran raising two children with assistance from her mother. The grandmother, Lydia, is a traditional Cuban matriarch caring for her daughter and grandchildren. Alex is the youngest child exploring his cultural heritage and family’s immigration story. The oldest child, Elena, is a straight A student who is exploring her sexuality. As she prepares for her sweet sixteen, she confirms her sexual identity to her brother and comes out as a lesbian to her grandmother, mother, and father. The show’s development reveals the mother and grandmother’s process of acceptance and greater awareness of sexuality and lesbian sexual identity.

This series provides counselors with an opportunity to witness and experience the dimensional experiences of multi-generational Latinx families living in the United States (U.S.). The gender neutral term Latinx is often used when referring to individuals of Latin American descent. The series also highlights some of the most salient experiences of Latinx families, such as acculturation, language(s) barriers, immigration issues, sexual identity, and generational differences. This series encourages counselors to engage in critical thought regarding family systems and how each member of the family is experiencing the sociopolitical context of the U.S. while identifying possible clinical implications and resources. Counselor educators could use some video clips from this series in multicultural counseling courses to discuss the interplay of the intersectionality of various identities.

The implementation of expressive techniques in counseling (e.g., cinema, music, art) have been instrumental to the counseling profession, positively impacting counselors and the quality of work with their clients by positioning them to broaden their perspectives and obtain and deeper understanding of life altering experiences (Bradley, Whiting, & Hendricks, 2008). Hidden Figures is an inspirational, biographical film that highlights three African American mathematicians, Katherine G. Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson, and their invaluable contributions to NASA during the early years of the United States’ space program while intensely preparing for John Glen’s historic launch into orbit. These three women, like so many African American women, encountered extreme racism, segregation, discrimination, and sexism. This film provides a vivid depiction of social injustices for African Americans and women in the 1960s. Fortunately, these courageous and determined women would not be dismayed, choosing to persevere despite demeaning work conditions, as well as adversity across the nation. These three women chose to remain focused on their career aspirations and goals, drawing strength and support from their families and friendship with one another.

In the November 2016 issue of Counseling Today, Dr. Catherine Roland urged counselors to re-evaluate, accept, and activate our resilience as human beings. Thus, the author encourages counselors to inspire their clients to do the same. Counselors can assist clients with recognizing their unique, personal attributes and so they can tap into the necessary grit needed to overcome adverse situations and pursue personal and professional goals and aspirations. Movies like Hidden Figures can also inspire clients to push past discrimination and social injustices in pursuit of their personal and professional goals and aspirations.

Reference:
Bradley, L., Whiting, P., & Hendricks, B. (2008). The use of expressive techniques in counseling. Journal of Creativity in Mental Health, 3(1), 44-59.

The first episode of Born This Way aired on the A&E Television Station in December 2015. This documentary series features seven young adults born with Down syndrome. The series follows Elena, Megan, Steven, Sean, Rachel, Cristina, and John as they navigate through life. The show details their trials and tribulations while providing educational moments that are invaluable to viewers. The show unravels many topics that show the complexities and raw emotions of the characters. According to A&E’s description “Throughout the series, they pursue their passions and lifelong dreams, explore friendships, romantic relationships and work, all while defying society’s expectations” (A&E). The show also shares the perspective of the parents. The parents share the joys and challenges experienced while raising a child born with Down syndrome. Among the topics discussed are: independence, romantic relationships, career, family, and dealing with a wide range of emotions.

As an individual in the rehabilitation counseling discipline, I was initially skeptical about the show. I thought that the producers of the show would exploit or make fun of individuals with Down syndrome. Instead, the show’s level of authenticity defied my expectations. It illustrated how individualistic the diagnosis of Down syndrome can be. The show is well done, funny, heartwarming, sad, genuine, and authentic. I would highly recommend it to both counselors and counselor-educators. This show can help counselors in practice to better understand individuals with Down syndrome. It can also be utilized by counselor educators when teaching about various disabilities in the classroom setting. Additionally, counselor-educators can explore psychosocial aspects of Down syndrome with their students.