Challenges and Promises of Becoming a Culturally Competent Counselor in a Sociopolitical Era of Change and Empowerment

This article explores the historical and sociopolitical contexts of the multicultural competency movement and the challenges and promise of becoming a culturally competent counselor. Specific attention is directed to the promise and opportunity for those who commit to a culturally competent personal and professional way of life.     

Teaching Effectively in Racially and Culturally Diverse Classrooms

Abstract. Issues of racial and cultural diversity and racism pose particular challenges for effective teaching and learning in diverse theological classrooms. In this essay the author outlines specific strategies to confront racism and engage racially and culturally diverse students. Through the use of a model for understanding multicultural dynamics of teaching and learning, the author helps readers consider four epistemological categories: knowing our students, knowing ourselves as instructors, knowing how we teach, and knowing what we teach.     

Culturally Competent Assessment: More Than Nonbiased Tests

The persistent and unresolved issue of minority disproportionality in special education provides a strong rationale for ensuring that assessment is culturally appropriate and sensitive. An extensive literature on test bias has failed to find evidence of bias sufficient to fully explain disproportional representation of minorities in special education. Yet minorities in this nation, most especially African Americans, have been exposed to a long history of unequal opportunity and oppression, and these inequities continue to be played out in educational settings. In the face of inadequate cultural and educational opportunity, unbiased tests provide an accurate estimate not only of individual capability, but also of the inhospitable conditions that depress that capability. A failure to take differential educational opportunity into account when considering minority test performance may lead to serious errors of test score interpretation. In the face of unequal educational opportunity, culturally competent assessment thus means more than manipulating the content of tests. Rather, it represents a comprehensive process that uses the results of assessment to identify and remedy educational conditions that systematically disadvantage students of color.     

Culturally Competent Family Interventions: Review and Case Illustrations

Family therapy is often the treatment of choice for culturally diverse clients. This article provides a critical review of culturally competent assessment and intervention strategies for use with ethnic minority families in the U.S. A culturally informed view of the definition of family health and dysfunction is presented, basic structure and goals of family therapy are delineated, and family therapy process and techniques are addressed. Clinical vignettes are provided to illustrate critical points.     

Counseling and the Law: A Cross‐Cultural Perspective

Counselors must demonstrate ethical standards of the profession and abide by the law. This task is made challenging by the fact that the mental health and legal systems represent 2 different, sometimes conflicting cultures. Using a cross‐cultural perspective, overlapping or common elements of each culture are noted, differing elements of each culture are identified, and recommendations are provided for the 2 cultures to work together as effectively as possible.     

Applying Critical Consciousness: Culturally Competent Disaster Response Outcomes

The authors explored the use of critical consciousness as a training tool to provide effective, culturally competent disaster response counseling services to disaster‐affected communities. The results are presented of a qualitative study evaluating the outcomes for participants in a disaster response outreach project serving residents of post‐Katrina New Orleans. Participants demonstrated increased personal and cultural awareness and also constructed new knowledge related to counseling outreach competencies.     

Cross‐Cultural Contact in Counseling Training

Cross‐cultural contact was found to be important in the development of multicultural counseling competencies (MCCs). The greater the prior cross‐cultural life experience, the higher were students' MCCs measured at the beginning of a multicultural counseling course. MCCs measured at the end of the course were significantly higher than MCCs measured at the beginning of the course. Theme analysis of students' journals suggested that cross‐cultural contact, a major component of the course, was important in MCCs's development. Este estudio explora la relación entre el contacto intercultural y el desarrollo de competencias de consejería multicultural en un curso basado en este entrenamiento. El contacto intercultural resultó ser importante en el desarrollo de las Competencias de Consejería Multicultural (CCMs). Estudiantes con altos niveles de experiencias interculturales en sus vidas previas al curso, tuvieron altos resultados en las CCMs medidas al fin del curso. Las CCMs medidas al fin del curso fueron significativamente más altas que las CCMs medidas al principio del curso. Análisis de los temas en los diarios de los estudiantes sugiere que el contacto intercultural, un componente principal de este curso, fue importante en el desarrollo de las CCMs.     

The Relationship of Culture and Empathy in Cross‐Cultural Counseling

Empathy has been identified as a core condition for providing counseling. There are numerous articles discussing the components of empathy. However, as the U.S. becomes increasingly ethnically diverse and the world becomes more globalized, there is little discussion on how empathy will be effective with diverse populations. This article discusses the interaction of culture and empathy and suggests guidelines for establishing cultural empathy.     

Relational‐Cultural Theory and Reality Therapy: A Culturally Responsive Integrative Framework

The authors propose an integration of relational‐cultural theory and reality therapy. The authors contend that the traditional assumptions of reality therapy are consistent with the relational aspects of relational‐cultural theory and together provide a culturally responsive approach for diverse clients. The authors also include an overview of the 2 theories as well as highlight the convergences and divergences. In addition, the authors present a case illustration depicting the integration method in practice.     

Relational‐Cultural Theory and Supervision: Evaluating Developmental Relational Counseling

This article overviews relational‐cultural theory and developmental relational counseling (DRC) and reports the results of a randomized study evaluating supervisory relational health as defined by DRC theoretical constructs. As measured by an adaptation of the Relational Health Index (Liang et al., 2002 ), counseling students enrolled in clinical courses identified clear preferences for supervisory relationships that promoted accurate relational awareness, compassion, clarity, feedback receptivity, and responsible use of power.     

Refugee Trauma: Culturally Responsive Counseling Interventions

This article presents the Multiphase Model of Psychotherapy, Counseling, Social Justice, and Human Rights as a culturally responsive intervention model for working with refugee trauma. The model specifically addresses unique challenges in working with refugees with trauma, taking into account premigration displacement and postmigration adjustment and adaptation brought about by the increased number of global refugees with high rates of posttraumatic stress and psychopathology due to war and conflict.     

The Social Psychology of Black–White Interracial Interactions: Implications for Culturally Competent Clinical Practice

Social psychological research suggests that because of concerns about being perceived in stereotypical ways, people may experience negative affect and diminished attention and cognitive capacity during interracial interactions. The authors discuss this research in relation to therapy and assessment and also offer practical suggestions for ensuring culturally competent professional practice. La investigación en el campo de la psicología social sugiere que, debido a la preocupación por ser percibida de forma estereotipada, la gente puede experimentar sentimientos negativos y un nivel reducido de atención y capacidad cognitiva durante interacciones interraciales. Los autores discuten esta investigación en relación a la terapia y evaluación, y también ofrecen sugerencias prácticas para asegurar una práctica profesional culturalmente competente.     

The Cross‐Cultural Relevance of Person‐Centered Counseling in Postapartheid South Africa

In this article, the need for effective cross‐cultural counseling in South Africa is emphasized against the background of the country's sociocultural context. The characteristics of person‐centered counseling that make it cross‐culturally suitable in the South African situation are discussed. Rogers's cross‐cultural group work during his visits to South Africa is briefly described. The ways in which specific cross‐cultural obstacles can be overcome by means of the person‐centered approach are pointed out. The relationship between person‐centered counseling and traditional African healing practices is described. Finally, ways to address the language barriers in cross‐cultural counseling in South Africa are discussed.     

Culturally Focused Community‐Centered Service Learning: An International Cultural Immersion Experience

An immersion training model is described that incorporates culturally focused community‐centered service in South Africa as an experiential learning approach. Recommendations for developing international cultural immersion training with a goal of developing cultural competencies are suggested. Se describe un modelo formativo de inmersión que incorpora servicios culturalmente enfocados centrados en la comunidad en Sudáfrica como una aproximación experimental de aprendizaje. Se sugieren recomendaciones para desarrollar programas formativos de inmersión cultural con el objetivo de desarollar competencias culturales.     

The Relationship Between Multicultural Counseling Training and the Evaluation of Culturally Sensitive and Culturally Insensitive Counselors

In a study, multicultural counseling training contributed significantly to the variance in ratings of a culturally sensitive counselor. No significant contribution was made to the variance in ratings of the culturally insensitive counselor. Possible explanations and implications of these results in multicultural counseling supervision are discussed.