What Does It Mean to Be a Culturally-Competent Counselor?

Abstract

Changing demographics require human service workers to become more multiculturally competent. Using the multicultural counseling competencies as a foundation, the presenters outlined strategies to develop competencies within the awareness, knowledge and skill domains of multicultural competence. The authors propose implications for improving advocacy for multicultural social justice.

The Impact of Organizational Commitment on Job Performance

“…Multicultural is learning experience in small groups that has been proven by large groups and can be promoted by their multicultural competencies (Dietz et al, 2017). The qualified multicultural competencies will create organizational fairness in the working groups (Ahmed et al, 2011). According to Al-Zu'bi (2010), organizational fairness relates to the ways in which employees can determine whether they have been treated fairly in their work and meet the requirements with the ways where the determination affects other related jobs.…”

“…Multicultural competence is mostly done by employees having the ability to understand and commit to the vision of the organization. Multicultural competence means a part for approaching the process of one's personality counseling (Ahmed et al, 2011). It means that multicultural competence is necessary for employees who have learned and are experienced in a small group.…”

An International Learning Experience: Looking at Multicultural Competence Development through the Lens of Relational-Cultural Theory

“…and racial diversity in the United States, counselor education programs are required to prepare culturally-competent, ethical, and effective professionals to serve the needs of diverse clients (American Counseling Association [ACA], 2014; Council for Accreditation of Counseling & Related Educational Programs [CACREP], 2016). Counselors are required to be flexible, self-aware, and culturally-competent in order to establish effective relationships and work successfully with an increasingly diverse client population (Ahmed, Wilson, Henriksen, & Jones, 2011;Cannon, 2008).…”

“…Researchers have also discerned that many counselor education students feel that they are inadequately prepared to engage therapeutically with culturally diverse clients (Arthur & Achenbach, 2002;Hall, Barden, & Conley, 2014;Jaoko, 2010) despite that ethical standards require counselors to ensure that their cultural values and biases do not impact the therapeutic experience or outweigh the client's worldview (ACA, 2005(ACA, , 2014Ahmed et al, 2011). The current ACA Code of Ethics (2014) goes beyond awareness, emphasizing counselors' responsibility to honor diversity, empower clients, and promote social justice.…”

“…Contemporary counselors are facing a highly diverse client population and the rich foundation of multicultural competency research in the counseling profession has highlighted the importance of counselor awareness, knowledge, and skills (Ahmed et al, 2011;Collins & Arthur, 2007;Smith-Augustine et al, 2014). The challenge for counselor education programs lies in determining how to promote the development of multicultural competency in counselor education students within graduate programs that remain predominantly homogenous with the majority of graduate students in counseling being White and female (Cannon, 2008).…”