Definition of Multicultural Counseling PDF

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Summary

define multicultural counseling,
give its place in group counseling, family, ethnic and general counseling.
personal reflection....

Description

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Multicultural Counselling Student’s Name Institution Affiliation

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Definition of Multicultural Counseling Our society is filled by numerous people who most often than not feel neglected by the system; the minority. As a result, their disadvantaged- societal status may cause a lot of stress and other psychological and behavioral problem. Multicultural counselling is concerned with helping the minority groups overcome their daily challenges. From the name, it cuts across various cultural groups that are considered as disadvantaged in our society today. Some of these groups include; African American, Asians, Latino and Hispanics. Aside from handling different cultures, multicultural counselling also, deals with groups of people whose social power is different from the norm. Such groups may include women, disabled and the LGBTQ. Counselors in multicultural counselling are required to exercise a great deal of vast knowledge on various cultures whether it’s the LGBTQ community or Asians. They ought to be aware of the background of different cultures, values, beliefs, way of life, factors affecting them because of their culture among others. There are several factors that affect the lives of the minority and the disadvantaged. These factors may be as a result of race, gender, religion etc. thus the counselling experience. Multicultural counselling enables a counselor practice values of empathy and caring to better understand the different and unique challenges that the minority and disadvantages face in an everyday life. For a counselor to be competent in multicultural counselling, they must be aware of their own beliefs, values and culture to avoid value imposition. Moreover, when one is self-aware it becomes easy to accommodate the client’s perspectives. Multicultural counselling is all about offering guidance and empowerment to various people who may be of conflicting values and beliefs from theirs hence the essentiality of self-awareness.

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The Place of Multicultural Counseling in General Counseling People visit counselling for various reasons. It may be because of a partner, marriage, friends, work or children. Sometimes it may be as a result of existential angst. The reasons for visiting a counsellor cannot be exhausted. A counselor is a confidant, a friend or simply a shoulder to lean on. General counselling is concerned with all these difficult life issues and experiences that may be affecting a client. The work of a general counselor may vary depending on the client or region they are situated in. For instance in school, the counselor handles children and teenagers. If they are hired by a company for support purposes to the staff, they will mostly handle work-related challenges. The main purpose of general counselling is offering support and helping a client work through their challenges. A general counselor may also offer specialized services such as family counselling. As aforementioned, general counselling is concerned with daily life challenges such as self-esteem. Such as an issue may be brought about by the race, gender or the ethnicity of a client. Multicultural counselling comes into play in such a situation since its main focus is on the minority groups. Multicultural counselling will first seek to understand the cultural background, values, beliefs and common worldviews attached to the client’s culture. This information will assist the counselor to better understand where the self-esteem issue or the any other challenge is coming from. Moreover, the knowledge makes it easy for the counselor to be empathetic and offer solutions in a way that responds to the client. The Place of Multicultural Counseling in Family Counseling From the name, family counselling basically involves families. A family can be perceived as an entity experiencing challenges. Just like an individual may be battling some challenges, families too experiences difficulties. Family counselling deals with challenges such as

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communication, divorce and remarriage, behavioral issues in children, violence, substance abuse, trauma, and grief among others. In family counselling, counselors may offer individual, couple and family services. Like any other counselling service, family counselling is meant for crisis management, build on autonomy, self-esteem, personal growth and strengthen the relationship between family members. The conflicts in a family may be caused by a number of cultural, ethnic, race or gender factors. This is where multicultural counselling comes into place. For instance, the conflict within the family may be as a result of a remarriage between two different cultures. A counselor practicing multicultural counselling will need to equip themselves with wide knowledge from both cultures to be in a better position to offer solution. A counselor cannot effectively offer guidance to a minor group without understanding their beliefs, values and worldviews. The intervention given by the counselor should feel comfortable to the client. Multicultural counselors in a family set up should also pay attention to the family cycles as a result of the various adaptations the family has to make both culturally and as a unit. Multicultural counselling may be utilized in family counselling when the conflicts or challenges experienced are as a result of culture or other aforementioned factors. The Place of Multicultural Counseling in Group and Ethnic Counselling Group counselling involves conducting a session involving a group of clients tackling similar challenges. The main purpose of group counselling is to initiate an interaction amongst group members to boost self-esteem and build on trust. As a counselor, one may get a client who is afraid of opening up or has some trust issues. Putting them in a group may help them speak out their solutions. Also, in a group session, those people who have made progress in their challenges may assist the new group members and foster growth. Interpersonal learning is encouraged and

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feedback from the clients may offer a counselor deeper insights into their problems or situations. Group and ethnic counselling involves putting people of the same ethnicity into one group. Since it is group and ethnic counselling, multicultural counselling may be utilized. As mentioned before, multicultural counselling deals with minority groups which may include ethnic groups. When having a few people from the same ethnicity or minor group for counselling session, a multicultural counselor may pair people from the same ethnicity in a group. In the case where the clients are from different ethnic groups but share the same challenge, the counselor may use the knowledge they have on both ethnic groups to suitability group the clients. When people in a group share their problems, it becomes easy to come up with solutions especially if the clients relate on very many issues. The Danger of a Lack of Multicultural preparation in Counseling Counselling involves the incorporation of a number of skills such as empathy, active listening, problem solving, and portraying genuineness among others. However, the main activity in listening involves talking and listening. At the beginning, the client is the one who does much of the talking to express their pain or challenge. As the sessions progress, the counselor begins to be the vocal one to offer suggestions and interventions. On the other hand, a counselor may be visited by a client from a minority or a disadvantaged group. They are supposed to be prepared to offer solutions to the client. In such a scenario, if the counselor is not multicultural prepared, they may come out as culturally insensitive which may hinder the development of a trusting relationship. The client may feel offended or disrespected. Moreover, the counselor may end up complicating an issue the client first had. All these may tarnish one’s reputation as a counselor.

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Aside from that, when a counselor is oblivion of a client’s culture or beliefs, they may not be in a better position to help the client. In some cases, the counselor may escalate the client’s challenge unknowingly causing more problems. Some of the skill requirement of multicultural counselors include; the ability to engage the client in their style of thinking, use of verbal and non-verbal cues appropriate within a cultural context and ability to openly discuss the client’s cultural background, values and beliefs without being biased or offended. Personal Application Personally, I will use multicultural counselling to discover and explore my own personal and cultural values and beliefs. I ought to be self-aware culturally as well as have knowledge on the common worldviews surrounding my culture and ethnicity. The skills I acquire from the course will enable me connect with different people of various backgrounds on their level. Helping them will become easy as well as effective. Moreover, I will be multicultural prepared to handle any client I come across. Conclusion Multicultural counselling is an important course and approach for all counselors. Since it deals with minority and disadvantaged groups, being multicultural competent increases the client base for counselors as well as makes them competent to handle people from numerous culture. As discussed above, multicultural counselling can be integrated into any other form of consoling such as general counselling, family counselling, group and ethnic counselling....