Annotated Bibliography Paper Example on Multicultural Counselling: Best Practices for Change

Daya, R. (2001). Changing the Face of Multicultural Counselling with Principles of Change. Canadian Journal of Counselling, 35(1), 49-62.

Daya (2001) researches the trends in multicultural counseling by identifying critical best practice principles required by counselors. According to the author, different studies have previously focused on establishing whether multicultural counseling should be conducted on a universal platform of culture-specific orientation. The inclusive definition of culture upon the argument that there is a multicultural phenomenon in mental health counseling has been applied, but it has failed to meet the multicultural counseling environment needs. The author views the cultural specific technique which is backed by client-centered and psychodynamic theories of counseling as the best approach of offering multicultural counseling. The client and the therapist should have a shared world view to be able to create rapporteur and discern client expectations. Standards and guidelines for professional multicultural counseling should be established to guide on the key competencies, which can help bridge the differences between the universal and culture-specific techniques of offering multicultural counseling.

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Hanna, F. J., & Cardona, B. (2013). Multicultural counseling beyond the relationship: Expanding the repertoire with techniques. Journal of Counseling & Development, 91(3), 349-357.

The authors establish the importance of developing a therapeutic relationship to promote effective multicultural counseling. A therapeutic relationship between the client and the counselor helps to increase the client confidence to open up and share their problems while the counselor can use it as an opportunity to understand the client. This is not enough without increasing the client internal freedom and changing their dysfunctional lifestyle, which promotes new adjustment for the client. The counselor should create an environment of freedom, openness, safety, and non-judgmental atmosphere, which is key to ensuring that the patient is at ease. A therapeutic relationship has proved to be a useful technique in multicultural counseling by increasing the client reassurance and also allowing the counselor to get familiarized with the client world view. This article will be instrumental in understanding how to increase the overall patient courage and helping a counselor to gain the world view of the client, which informs the best counseling approach to be adopted.

Heppner, P. P. (2006). The benefits and challenges of becoming cross-culturally competent counseling psychologists: Presidential address. The Counseling Psychologist, 34(1), 147-172.

Heppner on his article emphasizes the world is becoming a global village through communication, traveling, migration, and trade. Thus it is important to incorporate cross-cultural competence in counseling training. Heppner emphasize a number of approaches to increase cultural awareness and knowledge; learning a second language from another culture, promoting learning opportunities with international students in training program who will share their cultural practices and values, integrating cross-cultural issues and knowledge in the counselling curriculum and textbooks, reading international novels or various news sources about economic, political, and social issues about other countries, watching international movies, and personal or professional travels to other countries. Also, promoting cross-cultural research will increase knowledge, and various strategies will be developed for multicultural research. Promoting cross-cultural teaching mainly team teaching within cross-cultural exchange programs. These activities increase knowledge about other culture; thus graduating counseling psychology students will have the skills to counsel diverse clients.

Launikari, M., & Puukari, S. (2005). Multicultural guidance and counseling: theoretical foundations and best practices in Europe. Institute for Educational Research.

According to Launikari & Puukari (2005), critical strategies needed by competent multicultural counseling context to improve the overall outcomes. One of the vital technique necessary in a multicultural counseling context is the ability to communicate effectively, which require a unique skill set, mindset, and heart set. The mindset is made of the cognitive variables; the skillset represents behavioral skills, whereas the heart set refers to the affective variables that are necessary for cross-cultural communication. A good counselor should know the different cultural aspects which Launikari & Puukari (2005) called self-awareness, culture-specific knowledge, and general cultural understanding and application in counseling encounters. In a multicultural environment, a counselor should possess behavioral skills that enable them to manage interactions, adapt to different social situations, and have the ability to show cultural sensitive empathy. Therefore, Launikari & Puukari (2005) emphasizes self-awareness, intervention skills, client culture awareness, and the ability to work well with interpreters in offering competent multicultural counseling. This article can be used to provide a provider based competency requirements to offer multicultural counseling.

LeBeauf, I., Smaby, M., & Maddux, C. (2009). Adapting counseling skills for multicultural and diverse clients. Compelling counseling interventions: VISTAS, 33-42.

The article explores how to use the RESPECTFUL cubes and Skilled Counselor Training Model (SCTM) in a multicultural counseling relationship. The RESPECTFUL Counselling Cube are Region and spirituality (R), Economic class background (E), sex identity (S), psychological maturity (P), ethnic and racial identity (E), chronological stage (C), trauma (T), family background (F), unique physical characteristics (U), and geographical location (L) (p. 34). Skilled Counselor Training Model involves three stages; the exploring stage where the clients express himself and the counselor shows empathy and positive regard, the understanding stage where the clients should have a different perspective regarding their life problems, and the acting stage, where the counselor helps the client to identify what he has to do to get where they want in regard to their problems. Multicultural counseling can be done by using RESPECTFUL cubes to check any potential conflict between the client and counselor and adapting the various stages of SCTM to various cubes of RESPECTFUL (p. 37). These domains will be used as a guide for counseling client from diverse cultures.

Lee, C. C. (2008). Elements of culturally competent counseling (ACAPCD-24). Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association.

The author of the article summarizes essential concepts that are important to put in place while practicing cross culture counseling. He argues it is vital for the counselor to understand the history and social movement which shaped it and influenced the origin of attitudes, value, and behaviors of the diverse groups of people. For one to be a competent cross culture counselor one has to be open minded and understand that respecting cultural differences requires a commitment of a learning process and being able to make sound ethical decisions. A counselor who practices with cross culture zone must have a broad perspective on culture and understand a culture is more than just race but also religion, gender, sexual orientation, ability status, and social-economic status. Also, cross-cultural counseling should be a process of empowerment to help clients combat the negative impacts of marginalization resulting from various "ism." Counselors should also understand that there are a multitude of helping sources available to individuals and should respect their multidimensional cultural being.

Quinn, A. (2013). A person-centered approach to multicultural counseling competence. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 53(2), 202-251.

Quinn (2013) assesses the effectiveness of person-centered therapy in a multicultural counseling context. The author compares person-centered therapy technique and the mainstream approaches such as interpersonal psychotherapy and cognitive behavior applications. Besides, the author carries extended research from psychotherapy evidence in the 20th and the 21st century. The research has found out that cultural adaptations in the person-centered therapy technique which increases the competency and effectiveness of multicultural counseling. The person-centered multicultural counseling therapy requires excellent knowledge and awareness on the part of the therapist to be able to deliver competent counseling. The knowledge should expand to the client's world view and be aware of one's assumptions that can prevent one from delivering biased conclusions on the client needs. A greater understanding of the client world view increases the counselor's ability to get rid of the rigid beliefs and attitudes that can hinder person-centered therapy. Besides, this approach enabled the therapist to carry out an experiential, cultural immersion where they can have a greater understanding of the client's needs. This article presents a critical review of the person-centered therapy technique, which has proved useful in a multicultural context of counseling.

Sue, D. W., Sue, D., Neville, H. A., & Smith, L. (2019). Counseling the culturally diverse: Theory and practice. John Wiley & Sons.

Wing sue on Multicultural counseling argues that a competent cultural healer is one who is working toward the three main goals: 1) is in the process of becoming aware of his assumptions about human behavior, values, biases, personal limitation, 2) one who actively working to understand the worldwide view of his cultural diverse clients. 3) One who is working to come up with strategies and skills which are sensitive intervention toward his culturally diverse clients. Therefore one to be a multicultural competent counselor should possess and practice the following: 1) knowledge of the cultural values and worldwide views of a diverse population, 2) developing skills for intervention with diverse client's population and 3) awareness of one's cultural value, assumptions, and biases. Thus through the above skill, the multicultural counselor will offer therapy effectively due to his/her ability to communicate, negotiate, interact, and intervene on behalf of clients from diverse cultures.

Owens, D., Bodenhorn, N., & Bryant, R. M. (2010). Self-Efficacy and Multicultural Competence of School Counselors. Journal of School Counseling, 8(17), n17.

The authors assess the self-efficacy aspect of multicultural competency using a quantitative survey where cultural acceptance is viewed as an important means of multicultural counseling competency. Self-efficacy is determined by the ability to grasp the terminology, knowledge, and awareness of the cultural differences which school counselors should possess to be able to deliver effective counseling. School counselors are supposed to offer culturally competent counseling, which emanates from the acceptance and awareness of the cultural diversity in schools. More importantly, the authors emphasize the need for counselors to identify their assumptions, biases, and values. This is achieved by establishing how one's cultural background affects their perceptions in counseling delivery. Another key technique identified by the author is being empathetic towards the clients, which can help to match the intervention with the client experiences and values from a cultural viewpoint. This article is instrumental in establishing the need for multicultural counselors to carry out a personal assessment to ensure personal awareness as well as offering cultural specific and empathetic interven...