Multicultural Issues in School-Based Consultation Conceptual and Research Considerations

In this article, we review literature relevant to multicultural issues in school-based consultation. Specifically, multicultural literature in the counseling and psychotherapy fields is presented as it relates to consultation. Ways in which culture may affect the consultant, consultee, and client are suggested. Because of the paucity of multicultural research in consultation and lack of major break-throughs in multicultural research as related to consultation, a conceptual framework related to the utility of multicultural issues is presented as a new paradigm for future investigations.     

Advocacy and Empowerment in Parent Consultation: Implications for Theory and Practice

In this article, the authors expand the view of parental consultation to include advocacy and empowerment as important contextual considerations. A brief review of existing approaches to parent consultation is provided. Selected advances in multicultural parent consultation are also presented. An advocacy‐and empowerment‐focused perspective is offered that describes the power of consultation with parents from marginalized backgrounds. A case vignette is provided to illustrate the implications for practice.     

Development and Implementation of a Multicultural Consultation Service Within an Academic Medical Center

A major challenge for our field is to ensure we meet the growing demand for culturally sensitive and responsive evidence-based practices to keep up with changing demographics in the U.S. as well as calls to action by our field. To address the mental health imperative to improve the multicultural competence of clinicians and to provide appropriate care, it is important to create opportunities for clinicians to receive training in this area. One route to meet these demands is to provide ongoing multicultural peer consultation to clinical providers. This model also facilitates direct application to clinical work. To that end, we present herein a model for developing and implementing a multicultural peer consultation team. In our implementation, our consultation team aimed to function as therapy for therapists in the context of provision of empirically supported, principle-driven cognitive and behavioral therapies, with a consultation focus on multicultural perspectives and multicultural competence. We demarcate consultation needs within an academic medical center, identify facilitators and barriers to implementation of the service, and provide recommendations for future directions. Moreover, herein we present a case study to demonstrate the process of multicultural peer consultation.     

Toward a Feminist and Multicultural Model of Consultation and Advocacy

The authors present core ideas or constructs that might be integral to a feminist and multicultural model of consultation. According to the model, the structure of consultation is (a) nonhierarchical and (b) an open triad (incorporating extrapersonal and outside factors). The process of consultation is (c) culturally responsive and (d) empowering. The role of the consultant is as (e) an agent for change and (f) an advocate for both the client and the system. Los autores y sus ideas centrales presente o construyentes quizás sea integral para una feminista y un modelo de la consulta multicultural. Según el modelo, la estructura de la consulta es (a) nonhierarchical y (b) una tríada abierta (incorporando extrapersonal y factores exteriores). El proceso de la consulta es (c) culturalmente receptiva y (d) autorizada. El papel del consultor es como (e) un agente para el cambio y (f) un defensor para el cliente y el sistema.     

A Cross-Cultural Case for Convergence in Pastoral Thinking and Training

This article argues for convergence of pastoral training models as a consequence of the pluralistic nature of contemporary life. It proposes a more active partnership between pastoral disciplines in an attempt to bring wholeness to pastoral service and to pastoral education in a multicultural context. Pastoral counseling, pastoral care and pastoral ministry are presented as mutually complementary and as under girded by the same pastoral theological principle of genuine encounter. Since pastoral theology is informed by personal experience, the author illustrates his points by reference to personal cross-cultural experience. This article is an adaptation of a paper delivered at a multicultural conference in Seoul, Korea in November 2008.     

Counsellors' self-perceived multicultural competencies model

This study aimed to develop a UK instrument measure of counsellors’ multicultural competencies. Also, it intended to analyse to what extent multicultural competencies have an influence in counselling practice in terms of processes and interventions.

The study was an expansion of the American multicultural competencies model, which related cultural competence to a combination of three factors: cultural beliefs, cultural knowledge and cultural skills. Results partially supported the hypothesis, which predicted that counsellors would present high correlation rates between cultural skills, cultural knowledge and cultural beliefs when self-evaluating their levels of multicultural competence.

The study's findings present alternative three-dimensional multicultural models that indicated how counsellors perceived multicultural competence based on both societal (e.g. race, class, patriotism) and functional (e.g. family, social norms and groups). It also discusses the correlations between cultural skills, cultural knowledge and cultural beliefs and how they played a part in helping counsellors to further understand their multicultural competencies and limitations. Finally, it is proposed that future research should investigate the possibility of developing multidimensional or multi-axial models as an alternative way of further developing the counsellors’ multicultural competencies models which emerged from this study.     

Primary process and peer consultation: an experiential model to work through countertransference

Various models exist for peer supervision and consultation of group therapy. This article documents the authors' experience using an experiential group consultation of group therapy model that relies on primary process to overcome countertransference dilemmas. A review of group therapy supervision and consultation models is followed by vignettes from the authors' experience. Discussion of the vignettes highlight critical issues in group consultation and expound upon the strengths and challenges of using an experiential model.     

Reflections on a Multicultural Internship Experience

During the 1986–1987 academic year, the author worked as a predoctoral intern in a multicultural counseling training program. In this article the author shares his reflections on the internship and provides potential trainees with a vicarious experience of the following important challenges encountered in multicultural counseling: (a) addressing the fears involved in crossing cultural boundaries, (b) learning about and working with ethnic-minority groups, (c) developing culturally appropriate counseling skills, and (d) confronting ethnocentrism. As a case study in multicultural training, this article supports the training models of Pedersen (1988) and Sue, Akutsu, and Higashi (1985). Implications of the author's experiences for counselor training are discussed. Durante el año académico 1986–1987 el autor trabajó como interno predoctoral en un programa de entrenamiento de consejería multicultural. En este artículo el autor comparte sus reflexiones del internado y describe a los potenciales practicantes los importantes desafíos que se pueden encontrar en la consejería multicultural: (a) los miedos que hay en cruzar fronteras culturales; (b) trabajar con grupos de minorias étnicas y aprender de ellos; (c) el desarrollo de habilidades de consejería culturalmente apropiados; y (d) el enfrentarse al etnocentrismo. Este articulo, como un caso de estudio en entrenamiento multicultural, sostiene los modelos de entrenamiento de Pedersen (1988) y Sue, Akutsu, y Higashi (1985). Se discuten las implicaciones de las experiencias del autor para el entrenamiento de consejeros.     

Cross-university dialogues to support multicultural school consultation training

There is a growing need for school psychologists to build multicultural knowledge, skills, values, and dispositions to serve increasingly diverse student, teacher, and caregiver populations in schools. The purpose of this study was to investigate the process and outcomes of a cross-university dialogue (CUD) activity for 88 school psychologist trainees enrolled in consultation courses, across three school psychology training programs, over three years. The CUD involved partnering with a peer or peers from another training program, individually and then collaboratively completing a case study activity, and writing a guided reflection exercise. It was intended to support trainees' development of multicultural school consultation (MSC) competency and their application of a MSC framework. Constructivist grounded theory methodology and methods, including several features to enhance trustworthiness, guided the investigation. Four themes emerged from the data: (a) trainees established increased self-awareness and professional identity, (b) trainees made sense of multiple perspectives during CUD interactions, (c) trainees learned from their partners and considered future relevance of MSC, and (d) trainees' learning reflected cross-cutting ecological perspectives, influencing the CUD interaction and learning process at multiple levels. A grounded theory based on the data is described, and implications are drawn for the training and development of MSC competence.     

Beyond the Dutch “Multicultural Model”

The Netherlands has been internationally known for its multicultural approach to immigrant integration. The aim of this article is to delve into the “coproduction” by researchers and policy makers of this so-called Dutch “multicultural model”. As this article shows, researchers and policy makers have in The Netherlands been joined in several discourse coalitions. Indeed, one of these discourse coalitions supported an integration paradigm with multicultural elements, but at least two other types of discourses can be identified in The Netherlands, one of more liberal–egalitarian nature and one more assimilationist. In spite of the persistent image of The Netherlands as a representative of the multicultural model, it is in fact this multiplicity of discourses that characterizes the Dutch case. Moreover, labeling Dutch integration policies as “multiculturalist” has to be understood as a performative act by both politicians and scholars who disapprove of Dutch integration policies. In that sense, the retrospective labeling of policies as multiculturalist is a very specific kind of coproduction of a policy frame.     

Multicultural Competence and Counselor Training: A National Survey

The extent to which practicing professional counselors perceive themselves as multiculturally competent and the basis for their training experiences in multicultural counseling have not been determined. This article reports the results of a survey on practicing professional counselors' perceptions of their multicultural competence and the nature of their pre- and in-service professional preparation in this area. There was no significant difference in self-perceived multicultural competence between graduates of Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) accredited and nonaccredited programs. However, ethnicity was related to higher levels of perceived multicultural competence.     

Visions and Realities: Supervisee Perspectives of Multicultural Supervision

This article provides an overview of the experiences of 4 psychologists‐in‐training as supervisees in multicultural supervision relationships. Grounded in the supervision and multicultural literature, this article helps both supervisors and supervisees to (a) understand supervisees' needs and perspectives for culturally integrated supervision and (b) discuss multicultural issues during supervision. Recommendations are provided to facilitate the development of effective multicultural supervision. Este artículo muestra un resumen de las experiencias de 4 psicológos‐en‐entrenamiento bajo supervisión en relaciones de supervisión multiculturales. En base a la literatura multicultural y de supervisión, este artículo ayuda a supervisores y supervisados a (a) entender las necesidades de los supervisados y sus perspectivas hacia temas que integran la cultura en la supervisión, y (b) a discutir temas multiculturales durante la supervisión. Se proveen recomendaciones para facilitar el desarrollo de supervisión multicultural eficaz.     

Portuguese-Canadian Emigrant Descendents in Multicultural Canada: Ambiguous Identity in a Sure-Footed Nation or Cultural Awareness in an Uncertain Country?

This paper examines the ways the descendents of Portuguese-Canadian immigrants contemplate and formulate their identities. Through qualitative, open-ended interviews, the research demonstrates how these individuals contest ideas of ‘being Portuguese’ and ‘being Canadian’ within the frameworks of the Canadian multicultural policy. Refusing to be positioned outside the nation and Anglo/Francophone conformity, these individuals produce their own meanings of identity by working through their own personally identified multiethnic bodies to the national body politic, where some of them see their own selves as intrinsically ‘multicultural’ and contributors to the very definition of a Canadian identity. Challenging the tropes of the Canadian multicultural narrative, these descendents, thus, develop nuanced models of cultural citizenship, illustrating that national identities are formed and transformed in relation to representation. Through the process of narrative analysis, my endeavour of this article are twofold: on one hand, to illuminate the role of these individuals who, as active actors, are shaped by the social worlds they delve in and, on the other, to explicate how the roles played out by these actors can contribute to the construction of ‘a Canadian identity’.     

White Counselor Self-Awareness: A Prerequisite for Developing Multicultural Competence

This review of the literature examines White counselor self-awareness as an important variable in developing multicultural competence. The self-dimension discussed in this article includes worldview, cultural values, and racial identity. It is suggested that counselor self-awareness is a prerequisite to developing multicultural competence and that an in-depth understanding of these factors may improve the delivery of mental health services to culturally diverse client populations.     

Foucault's Genealogy and Teaching Multiculturalism as a Subversive Activity

It is being argued, in this article, that multicultural education is subversive because it challenges the assumed inevitability and superiority of the dominant culture by presenting alterna-tives to it. For multicultural education to be subversive, however, culture has to be understood as an order of things mapped across truth and power axis à la Foucault. These order of things are sup-pressed by the dominant culture in order to maintain its hegemony. It is being further argued that with the help of Foucault's genealogy we can understand how multicultural education can liberate subjugated order of things.     

Addressing Cultural Factors in Development of System Interventions

SUMMARY

The purpose of this article is to address various issues concerning multicultural interventions at a system level. Diversity is presented through a different conceptual approach and specific implications for school psychological practice are addressed. In this theoretical context an alternative model of school psychological services that was developed in the Greek educational system is presented and a primary intervention program is described as a paradigm of multicultural system/community intervention. Finally, the components of a transnational approach to multicultural system/community interventions that provides the basic procedural guidelines to developing effective, culturally sensitive interventions in the school environment is proposed.     

Recent trends in cultural theories

Multiculturalism is probably the most important and most misunderstood psychological construct of this decade. This article identifies specific and uniquely valuable contributions of a multicultural perspective and demonstrates the importance of multicultural awareness training as a primary prevention strategy, directed toward preventing multicultural misunderstandings before they happen by training mental health providers to become more aware of their culturally learned assumptions and the contrasting cultural contexts of their clients. The development of recent multicultural theories will be reviewed to demonstrate how the definition of cultural theories have changed over time toward a broader and more complicated perspective. Finally practical applications of culture-centered theories will be reviewed through the presentation of a Cultural Grid for separating behaviors from expectations in each cultural context.     

Using Mixed Personal Growth Groups to Reduce Biases With Same-Sex Couples

Counselors serve numerous multicultural clients, such as individuals in same-sex relationships. However, some counselors-in-training (students) are reluctant to provide therapy to same-sex couples (SSCs). This article provides counselor education programs with creative guidelines/strategies for students to work with SSCs. Specifically, this article recommends a mixed personal growth group for counselors-in-training to develop better social-relational capabilities and multicultural sensitivity/awareness.     

Models of genetic counseling and their effects on multicultural genetic counseling

This theoretical paper examines challenges to multicultural genetic counseling, counseling between culturally different clients and counselors, in the context of Kessler's typology of models of genetic counseling (Kessler S (1997) J Genet Counsel 6:287–295). It is suggested that challenges such as resistance to multicultural genetic counseling education may be due to conceptions about genetic counseling as a biomedical field that transcends questions of culture as well as lack of multicultural training or prejudice. Directions for future research and recommendations for multicultural genetic counseling education are briefly explored.     

Response to Mowrer and McCarver's paper on multicultural perspective and life satisfaction

It is argued that the article by Mowrer and McCarver (2002) misrepresents Ramirez's work by making assumptions based on an incomplete definition of multicultural identity and by inferring that multicultural psychotherapy can serve as a cure-all for psychopathology. It is shown that the authors did not test Ramirez's model, but instead merely used his conceptual framework to develop and test their own measure of multicultural perspective.