Biography
Manivong J. Ratts was born in Vientiane, Laos. He came to the United States with his family in the 1970s by way of a refugee camp in Thailand. His childhood was spent growing up in Yakima, WA, an agricultural community in central Washington.
He began his studies at Yakima Valley Community College (Yakima, WA) where he graduated in 1993 with an Associates degree. In 1996, he earned a Bachelors degree in Psychology from Western Washington University (Bellingham, WA). He holds a master's (M.S., 1999) and a doctorate (Ph.D., 2006) in Counseling from Oregon State University (Corvallis, OR). In 2018, he was awarded a doctorate of humane letters, honoris causa, from Lewis and Clark College for his work in advancing multiculturalism and social justice in counseling.
Currently, he is professor of counseling at Seattle University and chair of the Department of Leadership and Professional Studies where he oversees five programs: Adult Education and Development, Counseling (Clinical Mental Health and School Counseling), Educational Leadership, Student Development, and Teaching English as a Second Language. He has also served as Acting Associate Dean of Academic Programs and Faculty Affairs. He is a licensed mental health counselor (L.M.H.C.) and past President of Counselors for Social Justice, a division of the American Counseling Association (ACA).
He is one of the nation’s leading scholars in the area of social justice counseling. He coined the term “social justice counseling” and argued that social justice is a “fifth force” among counseling paradigms, following the psychoanalytic, cognitive-behavioral, humanistic, and multicultural traditions. Recently, he chaired a committee that developed Multicultural and Social Justice Counseling Competencies (MSJCC) for the counseling profession with Drs. Anneliese Singh, Sylvia Nassar-McMillan, Kent Butler, and Rafe McCullough. The MSJCC serve as a guide to help counseling professionals develop multicultural and social justice competence. The competencies have been adopted by the American Counseling Association (ACA), the leading organization for professional counselors and they are used in counselor training programs across the country.
Dr. Ratts has served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Counseling and Development and the Journal for Social Action in Counseling and Psychology. He has published in various peer reviewed journals on social justice counseling and is lead author of the following books Counseling for Multiculturalism and Social Justice: Integration, Theory, and Application (2014) with Dr. Paul B. Pedersen and ACA Advocacy Competencies: A Social Justice Framework for Counselors (2010) with Dr. Judy Lewis and Dr. Rebecca Toporek. He has produced two video series through Alexander Street Press titled Four Approaches to Counseling One Client: Medical, Intrapsychic, Multicultural, and Social Justice Counseling Paradigms (2011) and Five forces of Counseling and Psychotherapy: Psychoanalytic, Cognitive-Behavioral, Existential-Humanistic, Multicultural, and Social Justice (2013).
He began his studies at Yakima Valley Community College (Yakima, WA) where he graduated in 1993 with an Associates degree. In 1996, he earned a Bachelors degree in Psychology from Western Washington University (Bellingham, WA). He holds a master's (M.S., 1999) and a doctorate (Ph.D., 2006) in Counseling from Oregon State University (Corvallis, OR). In 2018, he was awarded a doctorate of humane letters, honoris causa, from Lewis and Clark College for his work in advancing multiculturalism and social justice in counseling.
Currently, he is professor of counseling at Seattle University and chair of the Department of Leadership and Professional Studies where he oversees five programs: Adult Education and Development, Counseling (Clinical Mental Health and School Counseling), Educational Leadership, Student Development, and Teaching English as a Second Language. He has also served as Acting Associate Dean of Academic Programs and Faculty Affairs. He is a licensed mental health counselor (L.M.H.C.) and past President of Counselors for Social Justice, a division of the American Counseling Association (ACA).
He is one of the nation’s leading scholars in the area of social justice counseling. He coined the term “social justice counseling” and argued that social justice is a “fifth force” among counseling paradigms, following the psychoanalytic, cognitive-behavioral, humanistic, and multicultural traditions. Recently, he chaired a committee that developed Multicultural and Social Justice Counseling Competencies (MSJCC) for the counseling profession with Drs. Anneliese Singh, Sylvia Nassar-McMillan, Kent Butler, and Rafe McCullough. The MSJCC serve as a guide to help counseling professionals develop multicultural and social justice competence. The competencies have been adopted by the American Counseling Association (ACA), the leading organization for professional counselors and they are used in counselor training programs across the country.
Dr. Ratts has served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Counseling and Development and the Journal for Social Action in Counseling and Psychology. He has published in various peer reviewed journals on social justice counseling and is lead author of the following books Counseling for Multiculturalism and Social Justice: Integration, Theory, and Application (2014) with Dr. Paul B. Pedersen and ACA Advocacy Competencies: A Social Justice Framework for Counselors (2010) with Dr. Judy Lewis and Dr. Rebecca Toporek. He has produced two video series through Alexander Street Press titled Four Approaches to Counseling One Client: Medical, Intrapsychic, Multicultural, and Social Justice Counseling Paradigms (2011) and Five forces of Counseling and Psychotherapy: Psychoanalytic, Cognitive-Behavioral, Existential-Humanistic, Multicultural, and Social Justice (2013).