Multicultural Counseling

This week’s readings focused on multicultural ideas in career counseling.  This is a very important topic for future counselors in any field, whether it’s career or not.  As I learned in the Multicultural class here, as well as in the article by Byars-Winston and Fouad (2006), and the Brown textbook, metacognition and self-reflection on the counselor’s part is extremely important.  It is important because we often have unconscious ideas and biases about people of different races that are different than our own.  Byars-Winston and Fouad (2006) said counselors “may hold detrimental views of culturally different clients” and that it “occurs outside conscious processing, often occurring automatically,” (pg. 189).  Because it is unconscious, we won’t always realize we are making the assumptions, so it’s important to be aware that it happens, so we can adjust accordingly.  Some questions we can ask ourselves might be, “What are my own cultural values and how might those influence my thinking with this client? or How might my own experiences with a person of this background affect the way that I view his or her concerns?” (Byars-Winston & Fouad, 2006, pg. 191). 

                Every client is different.  Even those of the same ethnic background as us have different experiences and values.  So we really just need to be proactive in understanding every individual client without making assumptions about anything.  But this becomes even more important with clients of different ethnicities.  It is our responsibility to do research on the backgrounds of our clients, but more importantly, to ASK them.  If they are interested in a particular career field, they should feel they have equal access to those career aspirations.  However, as the Byars-Winston & Fouad article mentioned, this is not happening.  Their research found that although the career aspirations of different racial/ethnic groups did not differ from White/European aspirations, the racial/ethnic groups perceived fewer career opportunities and greater career barriers.  I understand why they feel this way, but regardless, I would encourage my clients to pursue whatever aspiration they have no matter what they may perceive. 

                It’s also important to note that counselors need to engage in an ongoing self-reflective process.  This awareness doesn’t happen overnight and it doesn’t last if we get complacent and lack awareness.  I haven’t had any experience in working with clients of different ethnicities.  So, it’s easy for me to say that I would engage in the self-reflective process and be a culturally-competent counselor.  I can start this reflective process now, but I really won’t get to practice the models until I begin counseling. 

Byars-Winston, A.M. & Fouad, N.A.  (2006).  Metacognition and multicultural competence: Expanding the culturally appropriate career counseling model.  The Career Development Quarterly, 54, 187-198.