Series Video: Cultural Competence in the Helping Professions
SUMMARY
Traditional definitions of counseling, therapy, and mental health practice arise from monocultural and ethnocentric norms that may be antagonistic to the lifestyles and cultural values of diverse groups. These Western worldviews reflect a belief in the universality of the human condition, a belief that disorders are similar and cut across societies, and a conviction that mental health concepts are equally applicable across all populations and disorders. These worldviews also often fail to consider the different cultural and sociopolitical experiences of marginalized group members. As a result, counseling and therapy may often be inappropriate to marginalized groups in our society, resulting in cultural oppression. The movement to redefine counseling/therapy and identify aspects of cultural competence in mental health practice has been advocated by nearly all multicultural counseling specialists.
MCT is defined as both a helping role and a process that uses modalities and defines goals consistent with the life experiences and cultural values of clients; that recognizes client identities to include individual, group, and universal dimensions; that advocates the use of universal and culture‐specific strategies and roles in the healing process; and that balances the importance of individualism and collectivism in the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of clients and client systems. Thus, cultural competence is the ability to engage in actions or create conditions that maximize the optimal development of clients and client systems.
On a personal developmental level, multicultural counseling competence is defined as a counselor's acquisition of the awareness, knowledge, and skills and the cultural humility needed to function effectively in a pluralistic democratic society (ability to communicate, interact, negotiate, and intervene on behalf of clients from diverse backgrounds); on an organizational/societal level, it is defined as advocating effectively to develop new theories, practices, policies, and organizational structures that are more responsive to all groups. Another attribute, cultural humility, seems central to effective multicultural counseling. Cultural humility appears more like a “way of being” than a “way of doing.” The attitudinal components of respect for others, an egalitarian stance, and diminished superiority over clients mean an “other‐orientation” rather than a self‐focus. Along with cultural humility, cultural comfort and cultural opportunity are important attributes of effective MCT as well. Finally, it appears that there is a strong need to integrate social justice competencies with cultural competence. Becoming culturally competent is a lifelong journey but promises much in providing culturally appropriate services to all groups in our society.
Full Counseling Session Analysis video (Part II) for “The Superordinate Aspects of Multicultural Counseling and Therapy”
GLOSSARY TERMS
Multicultural counseling and therapy (MCT)
REFERENCES
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