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Multiculturalism
Assessment of an individual's personality and behavior are judged according to the audience's cultural orientation. Because judgments are subjective, and subjectivity contains with it the values, attitudes and behavior of an individual, assessment of normal and abnormal behavior depends on the level of 'normality' the audience assesses the individual's behavior to be. This means that an audience that is oriented toward practicing a set of rules and normative behavior may express agreement or approval with an individual who acts according to these sets of rule and social behavior. Conversely, an individual who deviates from these social norms may be considered disapprovingly by other members of the society. In this situation, it then becomes evident that judging the normality or abnormality of an individual's behavior is culture-bound.
Take as an example of an American who goes on a medical mission to a country in Africa. Arriving at the country, the American is not yet acquainted with the norms and appropriate behavior that the African society makes it imperative to follow. Suppose, for instance, that there is an underlying understanding among Africans that when a man smiles at a woman and the woman smiles back, then there is an understanding between the two to have sexual relations with each other. This is especially true in some African community, where promiscuousness in engaging sexual relations with the opposite sex is the norm. Misunderstanding and potential harm may result if the American, not knowing the importance of this norm, smiles back unsuspectingly at an African man during therapy or counseling sessions. Although the behavior displayed by the man is considered abnormal by the American woman, his society thinks otherwise, since his actions and the meanings behind these actions are agreed upon in his community, and hence, tolerated and encouraged. This example illustrates how one's judgment of abnormal or normal behavior is primarily culture-bound.
Multicultural Counseling Competency The development of American society as a multicultural society in the recent years resulted from the numerous incidences of diaspora and migration among individuals who belong to various cultures and societies all over the world. At present, the United States is host country to peoples of various race, ethnicity, worldviews, as well as social class, which include Europeans, Asians, Africans, Hispanic, and Native Americans. The diversity of American
Multicultural model of counseling was developed with individuals with disabilities in mind, as well as other minorities and special needs populations. It is founded on the idea that multicultural competence rests on the ability of a counselor to integrate personal, professional and institutional contexts and suggests that change requires "affective, cognitive and behavioral learning competence" (Reza & Toporek, 2001: 13). Further the model suggest that counselors integrate the practice of
To counteract these dissimilarities, effectual counselors must examine their clients' cultural setting and be open to supple definitions of suitable behavior (Bolton-Brownlee, 1987). An additional counseling barrier is language. Language differentiations may be possibly the most significant faltering block to effectual multicultural counseling and evaluation. Language barriers obstruct the counseling process when clients cannot articulate the difficulty of their thoughts and feelings or resist talking about affectively emotional issues. Counselors,
Multicultural Supervision CROSSING COLOR BARRIERS Ethical and Legal Concerns Section I of the ACA (2014) Code of Ethics on Resolving Ethical Issues mandates professional counselors to behave ethically and to obey the law. They are fully aware that client welfare and the trust enjoyed by their profession entirely depend on a high level of professional conduct on their part. They adhere faithfully to the ACA Code of Ethics and other applicable codes. They
Multicultural Counseling Competency A counselor's knowledge, awareness, and skills concerning multicultural differences can have a significant impact on their ability to provide quality care (Penn and Post, 2012, p. 14-17). These multicultural competencies have therefore been recognized by counseling scholars as increasingly important, especially since American society is becoming more ethnically diverse. A recent study examined multicultural competencies among play therapists and found self-perceptions of competency to be independent of training.
Multicultural Counseling Presenting Issues The presenting issues evidenced by the client include self-identity and self-esteem issues. In particular the client appears to be confused about which culture she belongs to and which values and behaviors are 'acceptable.' The client may be described as having a 'dual identity' which she is attempting to reconcile to the point where she can be comfortable both with her American home and her traditional Chinese traditional family. The