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Comprehensive
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Cultural and Social
Foundations
Part 3
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When counseling in a cross cultural or
multicultural context, the counselor should
determine an appropriate stance by
evaluating the extent to which:
Eurocentric values are appropriate;
the client values emotional and/or verbal
control (as opposed to assuming the
emotional/verbal expressiveness
generally promoted in counseling);
the family should be involved;
the client’s culture promotes consultation
with peers and elders (as opposed to the
individual assertiveness encouraged in
counseling);
the client is culturally bound to avoid
distressing thoughts (as opposed to
developing awareness and insight);
the client’s culture promotes trusting persons
with whom s/he has lifelong relationship as
opposed to the immediate openness and
intimacy often expected in counseling;
the client is a circular, harmonious, or
holistic thinker as opposed to the linear,
analytically oriented thinker common in
Eurocentric culture;
the client perceives psychological
distress or metal illness to be a problem
of faith or medicine better solved by
consultation with a priest or doctor as
opposed to a counselor;
the client is accustomed to structured,
hierarchical social relations as opposed
to the democratic, egalitarian
relationships promoted in the U. S.
macroculture;
the client accepts the American
middle class values promulgated in the
macroculture; or
the client understands the counselor’s
imagery, analogies, colloquialisms, or
nonverbal expressions.
Criteria for normal behavior changes from
person to person, situation to situation, time
to time, and place to place.
Racial-ethnic minorities tend to be
diagnosed with psychological disorders at a
higher rate than white, majority culture
Americans, yet they use proportionately
fewer mental health services.
Some commonly articulated explanations for
these phenomena include:
members of minority groups are
misdiagnosed due to cultural
insensitivity;
members of minority groups actually
have less need for service because they
are psychologically healthy and have
functional support systems in their
communities or social groups;
service institutions are not responsive to
the specific needs of minority group
members;
the cultural norms of certain minority
groups preclude counseling; and
members of certain groups prefer a
medical or religious solution to problems.
The more person-centered and participative
the cultural milieu, the more important the
skill of interviewing becomes.
Culture centered feedback skills include
focusing on:
the person’s behavior as opposed to one’s
impression of the person;
observations as opposed to inferences;
the here and now;
sharing information as opposed to advice
giving;
what is said rather than why it is said;
giving the client only as much
information as the person can use;
what is useful to the person rather than
oneself;
positive implications in an otherwise
negative experience, as seen from the
client’s cultural viewpoint;
anticipating potential negative
implications from an otherwise positive
experience, as seen from the client’s
cultural viewpoint;
mirroring the client’s pattern of eye
contact;
mirroring the client’s pitch, volume,
tone, and rate of speech, all of which
convey meaning, especially when
speaking in a different language;
noting the client’s body language;
establishing trust by allowing clients to
discuss their concerns fully and without
interruption or changing the subject;
using verbal underlining to accentuate
important points; and
noting hesitations, changes of subject, or
other indices of discomfort.
African/Black Americans are more likely
than members of the U.S. macroculture to:
speak with affect;
prolong eye contact when speaking;
avoid eye contact when listening;
interrupt or interject;
make rapid verbal responses;
display emotion;
display field dependent thinking;
prefer a group to an individual venue;
include many persons in the family
(i.e., extended family);
consider the role of mother more important than the role of wife;
consider problems to have their roots in
the environment rather than in the self;
prefer a behavioral, action oriented, and
short term counseling approach;
prefer a problem solving approach to
counseling;
exhibit past/present time orientation
(future is “no time” in the African
culture);
have an external locus of control;
attach significant meaning to political
events; and
make use of the church for its healing
potential.
African/Black Americans may benefit from:
concrete, structured approaches to
counseling;
counselor self disclosure;
introspective therapies;
consideration of the spiritual aspects
of counseling; and
the teaching of new skills.
Asian Americans are more likely than members
of the U.S. macroculture to:
speak softly;
avoid eye contact when listening or
speaking to influential people;
incorporate moderate delays in verbal
responses;
feel more pressure to obey authority;
exert more emotional and verbal
control; and
desire assertiveness training.
Asian Americans may benefit from:
conflict resolution;
introspective and existential therapies;
stress management techniques;
assertiveness training; and
art or narrative therapy.
EuroAmericans tend to:
use loud and rapid speech;
speak to control the conversation;
use eye contact when listening;
use frequent nonverbal markers such
as head nodding;
respond quickly;
prefer objectivity to emotion; and
display a task orientation.
Hispanic/Latino Americans are more likely
than members of the U.S. macroculture to:
speak softly;
avoid eye contact when listening or
speaking to influential people;
incorporate moderate delays in verbal
responses;
feel more pressure to obey authority;
exert more emotional and verbal control; and
desire assertiveness training.
Hispanic/Latino American clients may benefit
from:
psychodrama or other cathartic
counseling approaches;
incorporation of rituals into the
treatment;
use of a life history questionnaire to
assess familial relationships;
help in accessing community resources; and
help in managing change.
Native Americans are more likely than
members of the U.S. macroculture to:
speak hesitantly, slowly, and softly;
speak with brevity and use silence;
incorporate humor and spirituality
into the dialogue;
look away when listening or speaking;
discourage verbal communication;
sit impassively;
agree for the sake of agreement;
give away possessions or demonstrate
little value for material things;
measure time by natural phenomena
rather than by clocks; and
value relationships over work.
Native Americans may benefit from:
respectful patience on the part of the
counselor;
home-based counseling;
collaborative efforts between the
counselor and local healer;
directive interventions such as advice
giving, limit setting, and advocacy;
story telling and analogy as part of
the intervention;
physical challenge or adventure
counseling; and
peer support groups.
Ethical Standards and Practice
for Multicultural Counseling
The Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice
of the American Counseling Association and the
Ethical Standards of the National Board for
Certified Counselors stipulate that counselors
do not condone or engage in discrimination
based on age, color, culture, disability, ethnic
group, gender, race, religion, sexual orientation,
marital status, or socioeconomic status.
Effective counselors are aware of their own
values, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors in a
diverse society, and avoid imposing their
values on clients.
Counselors are aware that culture affects the
manner in which clients’ problems are
defined.
Counselors take into account clients’
socioeconomic and cultural experience when
diagnosing mental disorders.
Counselors use caution in selecting tests for
culturally diverse populations to avoid
inappropriate testing that fails to take into
account socialized behavioral or cognitive
patterns.
Counselors are cautious in using tests for and
making evaluations and interpretations of the
performance of populations not represented in
the standardization norm group.
Counselors take into account the effects of
age, color, race, religion, sexual orientation,
and socioeconomic status on test
administration and interpretation.
Counselors present test results in culturally
appropriate contexts and incorporate
consideration of relevant factors.
Counselors are responsive to special
institutional and programmatic recruitment
and retention needs for counselor
preparation program administrators,
faculty, and students with diverse
backgrounds and special needs.
Counselors are sensitive to diversity issues
in conducting research with special
populations and seek consultation as
needed.
In obtaining informed consent for research,
counselors use language that is easily
understood by research participants to
explain procedures, risks, benefits, and limits
of confidentiality.
When a person is not able to give informed
consent, counselors obtain appropriate
consent from a legally authorized person.
Multicultural Counseling
Competencies
Multicultural counseling competencies
have been developed to identify requisite
skills, abilities, and characteristics for
counselors to be culturally sensitive in
counseling practice.
Highlights of these competencies follow.
Culturally skilled counselors are aware of
and sensitive to their own cultural heritage
and how it impacts their counseling
activities.
Culturally skilled counselors have
knowledge of how oppression, racism,
discriminatory practices, and stereotyping
affect them personally as well as the
persons with whom they work.
Culturally skilled counselors seek to
improve their own cultural sensitivity
through participation in educational and
consultation activities.
Culturally skilled counselors are aware of
attitudinal factors, both their own and
those of others, and how they impact the
practice of counseling.
Culturally skilled counselors are
knowledgeable about the cultural heritage
of the clients with whom they work.
Culturally skilled counselors are
knowledgeable of the research and
literature regarding the mental health
characteristics and the cultural heritage
of the clients with whom they work.
Culturally skilled counselors respect the
personal and cultural worldviews and
practices of their clients.
Culturally skilled counselors have knowledge of the differences between their
clients’ cultural characteristics and their
own.
Culturally skilled counselors use
helping modalities specifically suited to
their clients’ cultural heritage and
circumstances.
Culturally skilled counselors avoid using
both overt and covert behaviors that are
discriminatory toward their clients.
Culturally skilled counselors help their
clients fully understand counseling
processes, including how they are best
implemented within the clients’ cultural
heritage and circumstances.
This concludes Part 3 of the
presentation on
Cultural and Social
Foundations