“How Many More of Us Have to Die?”: Clients’ Perceptions of Police Brutality and Counseling Support

ABSTRACT Police brutality continues to disproportionately impact marginalized communities in the United States, producing significant psychological, physiological, and systemic consequences. This qualitative study explored how counseling clients make meaning of police brutality, how they understand its emotional and social consequences, and how they perceive the role of counselors in responding to these experiences through therapeutic support, advocacy, and broader community engagement. Guided by critical race theory (CRT) and social identity theory (SIT), semi‐structured interviews were conducted with six adults who were currently engaged in therapy and had experience processing racialized stress, vicarious trauma, social injustice, or police‐related experiences within counseling contexts. Reflexive thematic analysis was conducted within a narrative inquiry orientation, allowing attention to both cross‐participant patterns and the meanings participants constructed through their stories. Thematic analysis revealed five major themes: (a) police brutality as a systemic and racialized phenomenon, (b) emotional and cognitive responses to police violence, (c) inequities in access to resources and justice, (d) the evolving role of counselors in trauma response and advocacy, and (e) the need for systemic reform and community‐based solutions. Participants connected police violence to racial identity, perceptions of safety, institutional mistrust, emotional distress, coping, and collective responsibility. Findings suggest that counseling can serve as one site where clients process racialized stress and develop meaning around experiences of injustice, while participants also identified limitations of counseling when broader structural conditions remain unaddressed. Implications for culturally responsive counseling, counselor education, advocacy, and community engagement are discussed.