Week 3 Discussion Response

Please no plagiarism and make sure you are able to access all resource on your own before you bid. One of the references must come from Sue, D. W., & Sue, D. (2016). Read a selection of your colleagues’ postings. I need this completed by 03/16/18 at 8pm. 

Respond by Day 5 to all of my colleagues’ postings in one or more of the following ways:

• Provide an alternative or      additional implication of your colleague’s insights.
• Share an insight from having      read your colleague’s posting.

Note what you have learned and/or any insights you have gained as a result of the comments your colleagues made. If a post already has two responses, you must choose another post.

Please thoroughly read the Discussion Posting and Response Rubric attached to evaluate both the posts and responses. There are four components evaluated for each Discussion Post and Response.

1. Responsiveness to Discussion Question /9

2. Critical Thinking, Analysis, and Synthesis /9

3. Professionalism of Writing /5

4. Responsiveness to Peers /9

To get the highest grade possible, ask yourself if you have SURPASSED the following standards as you re-read your posts BEFORE submitting them:

1. Response to Peers: Do my peer responses indicate that I have read, thought about, and selectively responded to my colleague’s discussion posts in a complex way? Are my responses engaging, insightful, reflective of current events, or relevant to some experience I have had? Rather than just demonstrating agreement with the ideas presented by a colleague, or randomly quoting some resource in order to satisfy a formulaic inclusion of a citation and a reference, you are encouraged to provide an engaging response post which specifically builds upon the ideas of your colleague in an original and substantial manner, including relevant professional resources that go beyond what you are required to read for the course. 

1. (A. Ola)

In this post, I will briefly describe the strengths and limitations of the American Multicultural Counseling and Development (AMCD) Multicultural Counseling Competencies. They I will share two recommendations that might enhance the current guidelines. Finally, I will explain how my recommendations can assist counselors in working with culturally diverse clients.

AMCD Multicultural Competencies

The American Multicultural Counseling and Development (AMCD) Multicultural Counseling Competencies have both strengths and limitations. The American Counseling Association (2014) Code of Ethics requires counselors to display multicultural sensitivity to the needs of an increasingly more culturally diverse nation of people (ACA, 2014). The development of the AMCD Multicultural Counseling Competencies (1996) provides a guide for counselors to identify and address the “dynamics of power, privilege, and oppression that influence the counseling relationship” (Ratts, Singh, Nassar-McMillan, Butler, & McCullough, 2015). Having counselors complete on-going self-assessment and receive additional training and knowledge about culturally diverse clientele is a positive step towards promoting understanding and sensitivity to the issues of culturally different people (Hays, 2016;  Sue & Sue, 2016). However, the theories, interventions, and techniques taught in educational institutions are developed from the viewpoint of the dominant culture in the United States and lacks the cultural perspectives of minority groups, thereby limiting the effectiveness of implementation, despite counselor initiative (Sue & Sue, 2016).

Recommendations to Enhance Guidelines  

McIntosh (1990) encourages counselors to look at ways to limit their level of privilege instead of constructing and acting on the belief of raising the level of access of minorities in the United States to meet their standards of privilege. Advocacy efforts at the macrosystemic level would focus less on bringing others up to the standard of the dominant culture, but more on the leveling of the standards of equality, to encompass all people, and the acceptance of their cultural diversity. I believe that creating new competencies that take into account the worldview of the world’s majority as the standard for developing cultural competence and skills enhancement will allow counselors to learn from the experiences of the histories written from the perspective of other cultures. Also requiring institutions of training for professional helpers to develop research findings that are based on the positive achievements of minorities and culturally diverse populations, will allow for the advancement of beliefs and attitude formation that are more realistic of the experiences diverse clients (Sue & Sue, 2016). I would also like to see an acceptance of boundary crossing and self-disclosure as a norm for establishing rapport and trust with culturally diverse populations that may lack trust due to a history of oppression and the impact of microaggressions committed against them (Sue & Sue, 2016).

Working with Culturally Diverse Clients

With my recommended enhancements to the AMCD Multicultural Counseling Competencies (1996) counselors will be able to understand the dynamic differences and strengths better that clients from culturally different perspectives bring to the counseling relationship (Sue & Sue, 2016). Self and client awareness will positively impact the interactions and perceptions of diversely different views and cultures because additional research will produce more positive representations of the culturally diverse (Sue & Sue, 2016). Multiculturally competent counselors recognize there is more than one perspective when clients have presenting issues that bring them to counseling (Hays, 2016). Listening with intent to the client’s reality in light of their cultural worldview will allow the counselor to establish a rapport. Establishing therapeutic requirements that focus on trust building and self-disclosure, authorizing some boundary crossings, where culturally appropriate, are important in creating a therapeutic alliance within some cultural contexts (Remley & Herlihy, 2015; Sue & Sue, 2016). When an initial level of trust has been established through culturally-sensitive adaptations, clients may be more apt to return to counseling (Kumpfer, Alvarado, Smith, & Bellamy, 2002; Sue & Sue, 2016).

Conclusion

Without a bond, hopefulness, and trust it may be impossible to set an atmosphere that is necessary for change within the individuals, professional, microsystems and macrosystems in which people reciprocally interact (Sue & Sue, 2016). Multiculturally competent counselors not only advocate for social change, but are willing to lay down their privileges to level the ground for all people, and not just to raise a standard to their level of privilege (McIntosh, 1990; Hays, 2016; Sue & Sue, 2016).

References

American Counseling Association (ACA). (2014). 2014 ACA code of ethics [White Paper]. Retrieved from http://www.counseling.org/docs/ethics/2014-aca-code-of-ethics.pdf?sfvrsn=4

Association of Multicultural Counseling and Development (AMCD). (1996). AMCD multicultural counseling competencies. Retrieved from http://www.counseling.org/Resources/Competencies/Multicultural_Competencies.pdf

Hays, P. A. (2016). Addressing cultural complexities in practice: Assessment, diagnosis, and
therapy (3rd ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Kumpfer, K. L., Alvarado, R., Smith, P., & Bellamy, N. (2002). Cultural sensitivity and
           adaptation in family-based prevention interventions. Prevention Science, 3(3), 241–246.
          Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

McIntosh, P. (1990). White privilege: Unpacking the invisible knapsack. Independent School,
         49(2), 31–35.

Ratts, M. J., Singh, A. A., Nassar-McMillan, S., Butler, S. K., & McCullough, J. R. (2015). Multicultural and Social Justice Counseling Competencies. Retrieved fromhttps://www.counseling.org/docs/default-source/competencies/multicultural-and-social-justice-counseling-competencies.pdf?sfvrsn=20

Remley, T. P., Jr., & Herlihy, B. (2016). Ethical, legal, and
        professional issues in counseling (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Sue, D. W., & Sue, D. (2016). Counseling the culturally diverse: Theory and practice (7th ed.).
Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

2. (A. Ox)

The American Counseling Association (ACA) has “20 chartered divisions” within the organization (ACA, 2018, n.p.).  One of these chartered divisions is the Association for Multicultural Counseling and Development (AMCD). This association’s intended purpose is to enhance compassion and understanding through programs that promote personal growth in terms of a multicultural aspect; ethnicity, race, culture, etc (ACA. 2018). The AMCD provides a guideline for counselors called, Multicultural and Social Justice Counseling Competencies (MSJCC). The purpose of this discussion is to talk about the strengths, weakness, and enhancement recommendations in reference to the AMCD Multicultural and Social Justice Counseling Competencies.

Strengths

           One of the strengths of the MSJCC is the guideline as a whole. Having a guideline to provide a basic tenant of what is expected of a multicultural and social justice counselor is extremely helpful. Another strength is figure one, provided on page 4. This figure provides a visual representation of identities and expected competencies, as well as how the quadrants and intersections of “identities and the dynamics of power, privilege, and oppression that influence the counseling relationship” (AMCD, 2015, p.3).

           The guidelines also point out the four areas of competence: self-awareness of the counselor, worldview of the client, therapeutic relationship, and interventions for counseling and advocating for social justice. Each section of competence has four areas of focus: Attitudes and beliefs, knowledge, skills, and action (AMCD, 2015). The guideline goes even more in depth by listing out areas of acknowledgement, development, skills, and actions to accomplish each competency. These thorough guidelines are a strength of the AMCD Multicultural and Social Justice Counseling Competencies.

Limitations

One of the most important limitation with discussing and moving towards cultural competence is trying to understand a clear definition of what it means to be culturally competent (Sue & Sue, 2016). Another limitation is that the creators of the document all studied at American institutions. While diversity within themselves may exist, there is the potential that this has been written from the view of Americanized culture and individualized values (Wienrach & Thomas, 2004). Another limitation is the counselor is the one who self-evaluates their cultural competence (Rogers-Sirin, et al., n.d.).

Recommendations

           Rogers-Sirin, Rogers-Sirin, Melendez, Refano, & Zegarra (n.d.) did a study on cultural competence of counselors. The study helped them to identify what culturally competent meant to the immigrants in the study. This could be a sample way to start testing counselors, not only for multicultural competencies, but also counseling competencies as a whole. By regularly evaluating counselors’ skills through studies, we can not only have a better understanding on what the multicultural client expects from a counselor, we can learn and grow to become more competent overall, as a counselor.

           Another recommendation to overcome the limitations of the AMCD Multicultural and Social Justice Counseling Competencies is to follow this as a guideline only. As counselors, we should not limit ourselves to one standard of competencies. It can take a lifetime, or maybe never, to become truly competent in counseling. There is no way to ever be 100% culturally competent, but we can be always striving to learn more and continuing to expose ourselves to different cultural groups, reading their community literature, and reaching out to them to know as much as we can.

Summary

           The AMCD Multicultural and Social Justice Counseling Competencies are a basic tenant to utilize towards one’s goal of becoming culturally competent and expand on their social justice advocacy goals. However, the strength in this basic tenant is just that, basic. There is more we can do as counselors to become as culturally competent as possible. By agreeing to participate in studies and evaluations on cultural competence, we can help the counseling profession to grow and understand what values matter the most to our clients. While one can never be fully competent with the vast amounts of ever changing cultures, we can try to be our best for our clients from a counseling and culturally competent perspective.

References

American Counseling Association, (2018). ACA Divisions. Retrieved from https://www.counseling.org/about-us/divisions-regions-and-branches/divisions

Multicultural and Social Justice Counseling Competencies. (2015). Retrieved March 12,2018, from https://www.counseling.org/docs/default-source/competencies/multicultural-and-social-justice-counseling-competencies.pdf?sfvrsn=8573422c_20

Rogers-Sirin, L., , , Rogers-Sirin, L., Melendez, F., Refano, C., & Zegarra, Y. (n.d). Immigrant Perceptions of Therapists' Cultural Competence: A Qualitative Investigation. Professional Psychology-Research And Practice, 46(4), 258-269. Retrieved from Walden Library databases

Weinrach, S. G., & Thomas, K. R. (2004). The AMCD Multicultural Counseling Competencies: A Critically Flawed Initiative. Journal Of Mental Health Counseling, 26(1), 81-93. Retrieved from Walden Library databases

3. (B. Mar)

Cultural Competencies