Multicultural Counseling Essay explains individual’s ability to live globally, attributed to their attributes, skills, and knowledge. Knowledge of cultural competence includes any knowledge that improves individuals’ understanding of the world they live in. This consists of the cultural self, which provides for ethnic identity and the development of an identity. Ethnic diversity, on the other hand, includes the understanding of people from other ethnic groups. The individual, therefore, has to be aware of historical, economic, social, and political issues.
Personal Attributes
On the other hand, personal attributes include individual cultural flexibility, which involves adapting to and responding to changing social circumstances. They are also required to have an appreciation for the differences with other members of society. Their ability to connect with people from different cultural backgrounds includes their comprehension of other people’s cultures and perceptions (Hays et al., 2018). Cross-cultural communication is a critical skill in multi-cultural competence, which involves verbal and nonverbal communication with other members of society. Essential skills of thinking facilitate deductive and inductive reasoning in the appreciation of different perspectives.
Systematic Approach
A systematic approach to counseling addresses people’s psychological problems from an individual level and their interaction with other members of society. This approach facilitates the comprehension of complex human systems and how individuals are expected to react with themselves and their world. Therefore, this is essential in disseminating Multicultural Counseling Essay, which considers minorities in terms of ethnicity and race.
This is essential to a therapist because they have to consider their sociocultural context to understand their psychological problems (Hays et al., 2018). This may involve the consideration of disabilities, sexual orientation, health conditions, gender, and living conditions. The cultural competence development process is a continuous process in the academic setting and on-the-job experience.
A therapist must be aware of the common Multicultural Counseling Essay such as systematic racism, whereby minorities undergo oppression in most aspects of their lives. This is something that is embedded into society’s social, economic, and cultural system. Another cultural issue often overlooked is ableism, whereby persons with disabilities are discriminated against, such as the lack of friendly facilities in the public sphere.
Again, this is something that a therapist needs to be aware of while dealing with clients with various disabilities (Hays et al., 2018). Another common multi-cultural problem is religious differences, whereby people with different religious groups may have varying understanding of the sociocultural context.
Essential Multicultural Counseling Essay essential to a therapist include interpersonal abilities, which are critical to connecting with other people at the human level. The skills critical in this case include listening, thoughtful consideration, and effective response. In addition, the therapist has to be curious and attentive to their emotional backgrounds and very introspective on their interpretation of the client’s circumstances.
A psychotherapist is also expected to be sensitive to different problems that increase their ability to detect underlying problems while treating clients. Multicultural Counseling Essay also facilitates the recognition of the clients’ point of view. From my comprehension of the learning material, it is clear that the essential multi-cultural competence in the psychotherapy setting is empathy (Hays et al., 2018). This helps them gain flexibility and adaptability to their changing circumstances, especially in their social, cultural context.
Multi-cultural Empathy
Furthermore, multi-cultural empathy is a multifaceted concept that involves perceptiveness, assertiveness, and know-how, facilitating the therapist’s ability to communicate effectively and understand the client’s problems. Therefore, to a psychotherapist, empathy facilitates contextualization of the client’s verbal and nonverbal communication.
References
Hays, D. G., & Erford, B. T. (2018). Developing multi-cultural counseling competence: A systems approach (3rd ed.). Pearson. ISBN: 9780134523804.
