Towards Effective Multicultural Counseling

How to have effective counseling session when dealing with clients from diverse background? 

Do you know that developing multicultural competencies is very crucial?

Do you aware and understand about all these things?

Well, as I have mentioned in previous post that multicultural does not necessary mean different in culture. So we, as counselor, must broaden our awareness and understanding of the key roles that a client's culture, identity, ethnicity, race, gender, and other aspects of diversity play in the counseling process. Just to be honest, learning about culturally-competent counseling practices, current theoretical approaches, and practicing self-reflection in this area will definitely help us to acquire the required skills in engaging with the diverse background clients. 

In this post, I would like to share about some important aspects that may drive us towards effective and competent multicultural counseling. Based on my previous reading, there are about 5 aspects that I would like to ponder.

 

1. DEFINE MULTICULTURAL COUNSELING

• Sound simplistic? Never mind. But to define MULTICULTURAL COUNSELING, it is something like what occurs when the professional counselor works with a client from a different cultural group and how that might affect interactions that takes place within the counseling relationship. 
• Not only that, it is also expanded to include dissimilarities in religion and spirituality, sexual orientation, gender, age and maturity, socioeconomic class, family history, and even geographic location. 
• Identifying and acknowledging these differences between the counselor and client is the first step to effective multicultural counseling.

2. IDENTIFY CULTURAL DIFFERENCES

• Direct approach techniques (e.g: use of body language, eye contact, open-ended questions) might not compatible to all cultures. Some native American feel that this directness is too invasive. Meanwhile Asian American said that this method is impolite.
• That is why recognizing and being sensitive to cultural differences is essential for establishing the trust necessary to conduct effective counseling sessions.

3. UNDERSTAND AND ADDRESS CULTURAL ISSUES IN MULTICULTURAL COUNSELING

• This is one of the most effective tools to engage with clients from other culture.
• The key is doing it in such a way that does not undermine the client’s belief that you will be able to offer professional help and potential solutions.
• Building rapport is a sign of our willingness to learn more about, and showing respect for worldview, belief systems, and means of problem-solving.
•  Learning about and addressing the client’s realities will allow us to create culturally-sensitive interventions.

4. ROLE OF SELF IN MULTICULTURAL COUNSELING

• Self-reflection is vital to become a culturally-competent counselor. Identify our own worldview and personal beliefs about those who are different from us.
• It assists us in uncovering our own prejudices, feelings, and stereotypical ideas about clients from other cultures.
• Be open-minded and willing to educate ourselves about culturally different groups.
• Become self-aware is an on-going practice. Allowing new information to play a part in shaping our professional identity is a valuable tool. 

5. ON-GOING EDUCATION REQUIRED IN MULTICULTURAL COUNSELING

• To understand every unique cultural difference is a continual state of learning. Even professional counselors can never master this ability. 
• When we work with greater number of diverse clients, our knowledge base will grow, but it does not mean that the learning process just stops there.
• Always remember that working in this area of professional counseling will continually provide us with opportunities to gain new insights and skills with each new client.

 

 

To conclude, these 5 aspects are very important in order to be competent in multicultural counseling. As we already knew about these, so let us together work towards achieving it. Learning is a continuous process, right. So, do not stop but keep learning and improve ourselves from time to time.