Multicultural Counseling - Essay Example

? Multicultural Counseling Today, the world is becoming a multiethnic, multiracial and a multilingual society and issue of stereotyping is inevitable. Therefore, there is a need for counseling to address issues of race, ethnicity and cultural differences that are facing our society. Multicultural counseling is a form of therapy that focuses both on racial and ethnic diversity of an individual. More so, this therapy covers an individual’s sexual orientation, ability or disability, social class, race, gender, and spirituality among others. Therefore, multicultural counseling refers to counseling individuals taking into account their cultural beliefs and the possible impacts on the patients’ treatment. Multicultural counseling occurs when a counselor and the client are from different cultural groups, and with the increasing demographic changes in the United States, it is very important to emphasize on multiculturalism and multicultural counseling. It enable people to acquire attitudes, knowledge as well as skills necessary to help them operate effectively in a diverse or pluralistic society, and most importantly, it helps individuals to explore all aspects of diverse groups. This paper provides an account of the definition of multicultural counseling, the specific issues facing American society that have the greatest impact on a multicultural counselor’s effectiveness. The last part of the essay focuses on how a multicultural counselor might impact larger societal issues that impact student achievement and success. With the increasing demographic changes and diversity in U.S.A, services such as multicultural counseling have been introduced to deal with clients from multicultural backgrounds (Hernandez, 2002). Arguably, multicultural concerns focus on diverse issues such as ethnicity, race, sexual orientation, culture, religion, and disability among others. More so, multicultural counseling refers to a helping role and process and clarifies goals that are consistent with the life experiences as well as cultural values of an individual, and all these are necessary in providing an effective counseling. Furthermore, it covers both universal and cultural strategies and their role in the treatment process, and it weighs the significance of individualism and collectivism in the treatment of a person (Sue and Sue, 2013). Furthermore, from a broader perspective, multicultural counseling incorporates ethnographic variables such as religion, language, nationality and ethnicity among others. In addition, it covers demographic variables like age and gender, and it focuses on status variables including economic, social and educational level, and it is important to consider all these variables so as to provide effective counseling. Different cultures have different values and aspects which others can stereotype and discriminate. With the common diversity in schools, place of work, and other social institutions, cultural differences are inevitable, more so, multicultural counseling has been recognized as the main source of diversity, and it is generic, therefore, all counseling is multicultural (Patterson, 1996). Multiculturalism begins with awareness of differences among clients, and it emphasizes on the importance of cultural and family factors influencing the client’s perceptions. There are particular issues facing American society, which have the greatest impact on a multicultural counselor's effectiveness. Normally, a multicultural counselor is characterized by cultural competency, educate and empower students as well as parents, and boldness among others (Griffin and Steen, 2011). The key counselor qualities that are very essential for effective counseling include respect for the client, genuineness, and empathic understanding. In addition, an effective counselor should adopt communication of empathy, respect and genuineness with the client (Patterson, 1996). Arguably, multicultural counselors should be culturally competent in that, they should understand the worldview of culturally diverse clients, be aware of underlying assumptions about human behavior, values and biases, and should as well develop relevant intervention strategies and skills while dealing with different clients (Sue and Sue, 2013). Some of the issues include cultural influence, linguistic inefficiencies, and intra-racial cultural differences. Because America is a multilingual society, language can be a major problem for both the client and the counselor. Language barrier will prevent the two to communicate and understand each other effectively, and as a result, the outcome of the counseling may be unhelpful. Therefore, language difference can affect the effectiveness of a multicultural counselor. In addition, America is composed of diverse people of different races. Therefore, race can be another issue that is likely to interfere with the effectiveness of the counselor. More so, multicultural counselor effectiveness can be interrupted by how the counselor perceives the client. How the counselor perceives the client based on their gender, ethnic, economic, religion and other factors determines their effectiveness in the counseling process. Cultural influence is a very important factor and should be considered when offering counseling to a client because it is one of the major causes of emotional conflict among individuals (Hernandez, 2002). Multicultural counseling requires unbiased view of the world and other people’s cultures in order to be effective, therefore, it is important for multicultural counselors to acknowledge and respect the client’s culture and other aspects affecting the client’s behavior so as to provide effective counseling. Most importantly, multicultural counselors should be aware of their prejudices about other people and cultures to ensure that they are effective in the counseling process. Accordingly, a multicultural counselor might impact larger societal issues which impact student achievement and success, and to date, students from some races and poor families are marginalized in some schools. Some of the issues that students face which affect their performance include violence, poverty, and family distress among others (Griffin and Steen, 2011). In order to eradicate achievement discrepancies in schools, school counselors need to aggressively address some of these issues affecting students’ achievement and success. All students should be equally served disregard of the cultural or family background. A multicultural counselor might address inequality, cultural as well as racial factors which are the main hindrance of students’ achievement and success. Multicultural counselors dealing with students should strategically handle educational challenges that students face to enable them achieve their goals and be successful. In conclusion, a multiculturalism concern covers an individual’s race, gender, disability, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and religion among others. The world today is rapidly becoming multiethnic, multiracial and multilingual, and this comes with increased stereotyping and discrimination, therefore, multicultural counseling is necessary to help in addressing such issues. Multicultural counseling enables individuals to develop a broader view of the world and other people’s culture. A multicultural counselor must be culturally competent, respects the client, genuine, and has an empathic understanding. Inequality, racism, gender, language difference, and culture among others are some of the issues facing American society and should be therefore tacked strategically by the counselor so as to provide effective counseling. Accordingly, a multicultural counselor should address some of the issues that interfere with student’s achievement and success such as discrimination, racism, cultural differences, and inequality among others, and this way, students will be able to achieve their goals and be successful in life. References Griffin, D. and Steen, S. (2011). In the Special Issue on Multicultural Social Justice Leadership Development: A Social Justice Approach to School Counseling. Journal for Social Action in Counseling and Psychology. Volume 3, Number 1, pp. 74-85. Hernandez, W. (2002). The Effects of Language and Culture Variables to the Rehabilitation of Bilingual and Bicultural Consumers: A Review of Literature Study Focusing on Hispanic Americans and Asian Americans. Disability Studies Quarterly. Volume 22, No. 2, pp. 101-119. Patterson, C.H. (1996). Multicultural Counseling: From Diversity to Universality. Journal of Counseling and Development, pp. 227-231. Sue, D. W., & Sue, D. (2013). Counseling the culturally diverse: Theory and practice. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons. Read More