[acb-hsp] Challenges and Promises of Becoming a Culturally Competent Counselor

[J.Rayl]

Challenges and Promises of Becoming a Culturally

Competent Counselor in a Sociopolitical Era of Change and Empowerment.

by Patricia Arredondo , Zoila G. Tovar-Blank , Thomas A. Parham

Challenges and promise are two dynamic and empowering terms. When thinking of these

terms coupled with culturally

competent counselor, we counselors can free-associate to related terms such as adversity,

possibility, dreams, and transformation. Many allies have been involved in the multicultural

competency movement based on our shared principles of (a) social justice and inclusion

(vs. marginalization); (b) equity, pluralism, integration, and preservation (vs.

assimilation); and (c) the essentialness of cultural and contextual paradigms in

the

counseling

profession. Of course, the movement has not always been a comfortable space from

which to operate, and, at times, advocates have been subject to resistance from societal

pressures of monocultural organizations and from other

counseling

colleagues (D'Andrea & Daniels, 1995). Many of those colleagues seem to prefer the

comfort of familiar

counseling theories based on Western worldviews and seem to abide by the mantra that

"counseling is

counseling."

Promise has come through the voices of allies, individuals willing to question the

status quo. Gilbert Wrenn publicly chastised counselors in 1962 for being

culturally encapsulated, oblivious to the racial stratification in society and, by

extension, in the counseling

profession. When Wrenn penned his admonishment, the backdrop in U.S. society in

the late-1950s and early 1960s was one of nascent social change. It was a period

of international competition with the Soviet Union; however, on the home front, the

1954 Supreme Court ruling of Brown v. Board of Educ. was an initial step to desegregation

of public education in the South. Yes, the Civil Rights movement (see also Civil

Rights Act of 1964) was under way, providing a platform for necessary transformational

change in many sectors of U.S. society: the workplace, education, housing, public

facilities, and the

counseling profession.

The historical context for the multicultural counseling

competency movement in the United States is vast and continues to unfold. Consequently,

as might be expected, this discussion is incomplete. Despite its incompleteness,

this article highlights some of the notable challenges and incremental progress of

the past 30 years and describes the future promises for the

counseling and psychology professions in general and counseling

professionals in particular.

Discussion begins by outlining a number of professional historical markers led by

proactive leadership and culture-specific organizational actions. As is discussed

in more detail in the first section, the genesis of the multicultural

counseling

movement focused on efforts to promote systemic changes in the mental health professions

through advocacy, constructive confrontation, and self-directed and collective leadership.

Embedded in this section are references to academic advances that were made through

the development of

culturally oriented counseling

models for training and practice. The second section examines the challenges individuals

commonly encounter in their personal/professional journeys in becoming

culturally

competent. The final section of this article provides a description of some of the

indicators as well as examples of the promise of the multicultural

counseling

movement for the future. This discussion includes describing the hope, optimism,

and steadfastness that is reflected in those persons who are committed to realizing

a

culturally competent personal and professional way of life.

Pathways to Systemic Change

The goals to achieve greater levels of cultural competence in counseling

and psychology did not begin with any single individual, but rather they were initiated

out of a convergence of historical, social, and professional movements. The sociopolitical

Civil Rights climate of the 1960s and 1970s spilled over into

counseling

and psychology professional associations that were in disfavor with a self-empowered

racial/ethnic minority membership. These members demanded inclusion, sensitivity,

shared power, and social change. Their discontent with the status quo led to the

formation of many culture-specific mental health associations that challenged prevailing

counselor preparation, research processes, and monocultural/monolingual assessment,

evaluation, and clinical practices.

Culture-Specific Organizational Leadership

The following brief historical summary is presented to underscore the effectiveness

of a collectivistic worldview that was applied by counselors and psychologists of

color and other allies in advocating for change and self-determination in the professions.

The first example of such calls for change and self-determination resulted in the

formation of the Association of Black Psychologists (ABPsi) in 1968. Advocates who

established this important new professional organizational entity distanced themselves

from the American Psychological Association (APA), signaling to others that the time

was ripe for change to be initiated in the mental health professions.

Initially, the number of professionals of color and allies who forged the emergence

of the multicultural counseling

movement was quite small. Consequently, these committed and like-minded colleagues

often traveled in similar circles as they crossed the professional boundaries of

psychology and

counseling

. It is no accident, then, that some of the same individuals involved with the formation

of ABPsi were influential in establishing the Association of Non-White Concerns (ANWC)

in the American Personnel and Guidance Association (APGA; now known as the American

Counseling Association [ACA]) in the early 1970s. Today, the Association of Multicultural

Counseling

and Development (AMCD) affirms the inclusive multicultural mission of the ANWC founders.

This is, in part, reflected in the fact that AMCD has four vice-presidents representing

the interests of the major racial/ethnic minority groups in the United States. This

current reality not only reflects the expanding diversity of the AMCD organization,

but also fulfills a legacy of promise established by the ANWC/AMCD founders, who

understood the necessity of creating organizational structures that provided each

underrepresented group with a seat at the table of decision making.

During the 1970s, other culture-specific organizational development initiatives occurred

that further fueled the rise of the multicultural counseling

movement. Derald Wing Sue became the first president of the Asian American Psychological

Association in 1972, and Carlos Albizu-Miranda became the first president of the

National Hispanic Psychological Association in 1979. Clearly, the initial leadership

in the multicultural

counseling

movement primarily came from psychologists. However, during the 1970s through the

present time, professional counselors increasingly contributed to this transformative

force by building AMCD and by being directly involved in the formation of the Society

of Indian Psychologists in 1980 and the emergence of the National Latina/o Psychological

Association in 2002.

All of these organizational development initiatives involved the increased participation

of professional counselors across the United States. Their vision, however, extended

beyond the mere diversification of their associations. Rather, the founders understood,

what Parham (2002) would later echo, that there is a difference between skin color

versus consciousness and being a member of a racial/ethnic group did not automatically

qualify one to be skilled at

counseling

persons with similar backgrounds. In essence, one of the shared values that bonded

together the counselors and psychologists involved in these initiatives was the expressed

need to identify, develop, and implement new professional competencies that would

enable mental health professionals to work more effectively and ethically with

culturally different persons.

Academic Underpinnings of the Multicultural Counseling Competencies (MCC)

While new culture-specific associations were evolving in the fields of counseling

and psychology early in the multicultural movement, shifts in

culturally

focused counselor preparation efforts were also taking place in many professional

training programs. Multicultural advocates began to advance new models and paradigms

for

counseling and psychotherapy that incorporated different cultural worldviews. Through

mainstream

counseling publications, books, and ACA activities, a promising platform for multicultural

competency development began to emerge.

Two important categories of such academic-related initiatives are discussed as follows.

This discussion includes directing attention to the development of new theoretical

paradigms and models for training and new areas of research. All of the theoretical

conceptualizations and research models discussed include elements that were later

incorporated into the development of the MCC, which have been endorsed by numerous

professional

counseling

associations (Sue, Arredondo, & McDavis, 1992a, 1992b). Furthermore, these multiculturally

inclusive models and training approaches have contributed to other important changes

in the

counseling

profession, including numerous changes in ACA's ethical guidelines (ACA Code of

Ethics; ACA, 2005) and

counseling accreditation standards (Council for Accreditation of Counseling

and Related Educational Programs, 2001).

Theoretical paradigms and training models. Many of the aforementioned models are

an outgrowth of a movement to design and tailor academic programs with the specific

intent of training new generations of postgraduate students who possessed the skills

and competencies to effectively intervene in

diverse

communities. These academic initiatives were anchored by some of the same individuals

whose professional affiliations with APGA and APA led them to develop the more

culturally

relevant organizations such as ANWC and ABPsi. Of particular note are the professional

training programs in Urban

Counseling

at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan; Minority Mental Health at

Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri; and the Multicultural Internship Program

at Boston City Hospital in Massachusetts.

The movement to establish counseling training programs that specialized in preparation

of culturally

competent practitioners ran a parallel course to the

counseling

and psychology literature that was raising its own voice about cultural issues in

serving racially and ethnically different clients. Several early articles by Sue

and Sue (1977a, 1977b) highlighted the need to recognize and respond to cultural

factors that may impede the

counseling

process. As a result of their clinical work, these researchers identified three

overarching factors that contribute to cultural misunderstandings in the

counseling

relationship: language differences, class-bound values, and culture-bound values.

In his role as editor of The Personnel and Guidance Journal (now the Journal of

Counseling

& Development), Sue (1977) published the first journal issue featuring discussion

about these factors as they related to cultural competency and barriers to

counseling racial/ethnic minority persons.

At approximately the same time, Sue (1978) also presented a conceptual model that

was designed to foster a better understanding of how internal and external locus

of control (IC-EC) and internal and external locus of responsibility (IR-ER) provided

a mind-set of privilege for some clients and disenfranchisement for others. This

is a particularly relevant model because it introduces the power of cultural, historical,

and societal factors in shaping individuals' worldviews. For example, an immigrant

who wants to take responsibility for her family but has no control over access to

health care, education, and employment opportunities (EC-IR) may be viewed as being

passive by the counselor (IC-IR) who believes in and places high value on self-determination.

As noted by Sue (1978), the IC-EC/IR-ER paradigm complements two multicultural competency

domains: (a) counselor awareness of biases and assumptions and (b) counselor awareness

of client's worldview.

Later, Arredondo-Dowd and Gonsalves (1980) advocated for a competency-based, community-centered

approach to counseling

that emphasizes four competency areas:

counseling

, cultural, linguistic, and pedagogical. Because counselors were increasingly working

with students of color and immigrant students speaking English as a second language

in urban settings, the authors of this conceptual model stressed counselor cultural

and linguistic competency development. They further contended that knowledge of traditional

counseling

theories was insufficient because, basically, these theories are

culturally

encapsulated, focusing on only individuals and not the family and community systems

to which students of color and immigrants are connected. Because many immigrant clients

speak English as a second language, Arredondo-Dowd and Gonsalves indicated that practitioners

need to develop an appreciation of bilingualism as an asset in the journey to become

a

culturally

competent practitioner.

Another conceptual model that influenced counselor training is known as the Triad

Model (Pedersen, 1988). This training model represents a

culturally

oriented approach to desensitize counselors to clients who do not share the same

cultural background as themselves. Through training with the "anti-counselor," counselors

came to realize that cultural perspectives are always in the room, both the counselor's

and the client's. Although the Triad Model is designed to focus on cultural, ethnic,

and racial differences in

counseling

interactions, it is possible to apply this model to other identity differences as

well (e.g., gender, sexual orientation, age, disability and identity issues).

During the mid-1980s, White (1984) focused on the need for therapists to be cognizant

of several factors in culturally diverse

helping situations. This includes the impact of oppression on people's lives, different

cultural worldviews and values as a source of strength, language styles and cultural

adaptations, and the influence of identity status on the interaction between counselors

and clients. Similarly, White and Parham (1990) argued for the need for mental health

practitioners to acquire a culture-specific therapeutic knowledge base as a prerequisite

for working with African Americans and other clients of color.

Following this work, Parham, White, and Ajamu (2000), and Sue, Ivey, and Pedersen

(1996) before them, called for learning particular sets of

culturally specific and generic competencies as a way of yielding more positive counseling

outcomes when working with diverse

populations. These authors recognized the importance of cultural competence, given

the level of misdiagnosis and mistreatment of clients that continues to exist in

the profession.

New areas of research. The emphasis on the cultural, sociopolitical, and historical

contexts in counseling

introduced new streams of research. One of the most studied areas in this regard

is the domain of minority/ethnic identity development. In the early 1970s, there

was great determination to counterpoint damaging research findings that suggested

the intellectual inferiority of persons of African heritage. Research by Cross (1971),

Thomas (1971), Jackson (1976), and Williams (1975) provided grounding for the minority

identity development framework (Atkinson, Morten, & Sue, 1979), now known as the

Racial/Cultural Identity Development Model (Sue & Sue, 2003). These models provided

the basis for much research that examined the relationship racial/cultural identity

has on various aspects of psychological development and

counseling

dynamics (Hells, 1990, 1995; Parham & Helms, 1981, 1985). Basic premises underlying

these identity development models include the experiences people of color and White

persons have with oppression, discrimination, and privilege.

The damaging effects of culturally

biased intelligence and psychological testing on racial/ethnic minority groups,

which results in the overassignment of Black and Latino males to special education

classes and psychological misdiagnosis, represented important challenges that fueled

new research that furthered the impact of the multicultural

counseling

movement in the mental health professions (Barnes, 1972; Bay Area Association of

Black Psychologists, 1972; Williams, 1972). One of the first books to tackle the

discriminatory practices in psychological testing was published by Samuda in 1975.

The irony of the publication of this important work is that its republication by

Samuda, in 1998, resulted in greater appreciation for the importance of this area

of research than was generated by the original work in the fields of

counseling

and psychology. Additional lines of inquiry regarding the limitations and harm of

culture-bound psychological testing (Dana, 1998; Paniagua, 1994) have followed Samuda's

(1975) early work in this area. These researchers outlined guidelines and competencies

for psychological assessment with ethnic minority clients.

Acculturation is another topic that has spawned considerable new research in the

fields of counseling

and psychology over time (Cuellar, Harris, & Jasso, 1980; Phinney, 1996; Phinney,

Chavira, & Williamson, 1992). In this regard, the multicultural

counseling

area has been inclusive of immigrant individuals and groups. This inclusivity stimulated

a growing awareness of the need for counselor educators and practitioners to understand

the interrelationship of acculturative stress, identity development, and psychological

well-being. Consequently, the psychological impact of acculturation has become another

important area for research endeavors, many of which are often coupled with examination

of racial/ethnic identity development.

In the 1980s, there was an increasing sense of invisibility regarding issues related

to multiculturalism that was tied to the national political climate of that time.

The 1980s was characterized by the Reagan years, a period of retrenchment that included

the loss of funding for programs in higher education that provided access to ethnic

minorities in particular. Despite these barriers, multicultural advocates continued

to advance their ideas through books, research, and other scholarly publications

to promote a more expansive knowledge base related to the role of culture and cultural

differences in

counseling

(Lee & Richardson, 1991; Pedersen, 1988; Sue & Sue, 1990). These publications fostered

a growing understanding of the need to advance the value of cultural competence in

counseling and psychology in the 1980s and 1990s.

Formalization of the MCC Paradigm and MCC Landmarks

Today, multicultural counseling is seen as the fourth force in counseling

(Pedersen, 1990) as well as a factor that is thematic to training, research, and

practice in the foreseeable future (Griner & Smith, 2006). Multicultural advocates,

many of whom already referenced in this article, traveled a long road of no less

than 25 years before the governing council of ACA formally endorsed the MCC (Arredondo

et al., 1996; Sue et al., 1992a) in 2002. Although the journey has not been linear,

there are several historical events from the 1980s to 2006 that contributed to the

eventual formalization of the MCC in the

counseling field.

Through the leadership of Allen E. Ivey, then president of Division 17 Counseling

Psychology of APA, Sue was asked to chair a task force that promulgated 10 cross-cultural

counseling

competencies (Sue et al., 1982). Later, Thomas Parham, as president of AMCD in 1991,

charged the members of the AMCD Professional Standards Committee to develop a set

of publishable recommendations on multicultural

counseling

that could be presented to the

counseling and psychology professions as a usable product that would serve as a template

for culturally competent

counseling. The result was the publication of an article titled "Multicultural Counseling

Competencies and Standards: A Call to the Profession" (Sue et al., 1992b).

This watershed document posited 31 competencies in three areas: (a) counselor awareness

of biases and assumptions, (b) counselor awareness of client's worldview, and (c)

culturally

appropriate intervention strategies. To bring more action to these competencies,

a related article titled "Operationalization of the Multicultural

Counseling

Competencies" was developed and published by another AMCD work group in the Journal

of Multicultural

Counseling

and Development (Arredondo et al., 1996). This important publication described 119

behavioral statements that operationalize the 31 competencies developed by Sue et

al. (1992b).

The 1996 document also included a section that describes the Dimensions of Personal

Identity (DPI) model (Arredondo & Glauner, 1992). The DPI model was designed to magnify

the need for counselors to address people's multidimensional identities in the helping

process. In doing so, the DPI framework also references the power of historical events

that shape clients' life experiences and worldviews. Thus, the process of becoming

culturally

competent was increasingly associated with acquiring a greater understanding of

the role that gender, sexual orientation, education, and so forth, play in human

development and mental well-being across the life span.

It should also be noted that the MCC became the model for an increased multicultural

focus in the field of psychology during the 1990s. This focus eventually led to the

endorsement of APA's (2003) seminal publication titled "Guidelines on Multicultural

Education, Training, Research, Practice, and Organizational Change for Psychologists"

by the APA Council of Representatives.

Another benchmark of promise was made by the ACA Ethical Standards Committee. In

the recently revised edition of ACA Code of Ethics (ACA, 2005), specific statements

were added that address counselor cultural competency development. For instance,

cultural considerations are clearly reflected in a newly revised section titled "Boundaries

of Competence" (see Standard C.2.a.). Here, counselors are instructed to "practice

only within the boundaries of their competence.... Counselors gain knowledge, personal

awareness, sensitivity, and skills pertinent to working with a

diverse client population" (ACA, 2005, p. 9). Additionally, the revised ethical standards

direct counselors to be culturally

sensitive and recognize that cultural diversity needs to be taken into account when

diagnosing mental disorders (see Standard E.5.b., "Cultural Sensitivity").

Confronting Personal and Professional Resistance

"Counselor awareness of our own cultural values and biases" (Sue et al., 1992a, p.

482) requires constructive confrontation with oneself. In counselor training, talk

is often about dealing with resistant clients, those who seem to be unwilling to

examine their issues in

counseling

. In a similar vein, the resistant student and

counseling

professional who exhibit fear and closed mindedness when it comes to dealing with

multicultural issues also need attention when they manifest resistance to multiculturalism.

Besides exhibiting closed mindedness and fear, what other defense mechanisms or examples

of resistance to multicultural competence are commonly manifested by

counseling

professionals and students? To answer this question, we briefly highlight the concepts

of xenophobia, unexamined privilege, and pseudointellectual resistance (dependency

on scientific explanations).

Xenophobia as Resistance

With the arrival of a new wave of immigrants primarily from southern Europe at the

end of the 19th century, an era of heightened xenophobia emerged in the United States.

In 2007, the national immigration debate reemerged with highly charged and negative

portrayals of undocumented immigrants. Negative media images not only promote a growing

xenophobia in contemporary society but also challenge many counselors' values, assumptions,

and biases about immigrants in general and undocumented immigrants in particular

(Chung, Bemak, Ortiz, & Sandoval-Perez, 2008). Uninformed thinking sometimes results

in the development of unfounded, irrational fears about such persons based on the

belief that they are lawless, are taking away jobs from Americans, and drain community

resources.

Manifestations of xenophobia, or fear of foreigners, are not uncommon among counselors.

In this regard, we have noted students and counselors who have exclaimed, "How can

I possibly learn about 20 new immigrant groups in our schools?" and "I don't speak

their language, I think I have to refer them out." Lack of experience or knowledge

about other persons whom counselors perceive as

culturally

different from themselves cannot be used as excuses for not working with these individuals

or for not referring unfamiliar or "

culturally

different" clients to other human service providers. An important question to address

concerning this issue might be stated as follows: Is this sort of resistance in dealing

with

culturally

different clients rooted in legitimate fears about one's own lack of competence

to provide effective counseling services with clients from diverse

groups and backgrounds or unexamined privilege?

Unexamined Privilege

Counselors have privilege. Counselors are formally educated with either a master's

or doctoral degree that entitles them to certain professional occupations and benefits.

As students and professionals, all counselors experience "unexamined privilege" from

time to time. This occurs when students and counselors do not inventory the opportunities

they have accrued based on cultural heritage, professional status, gender, and other

personal identity characteristics that connote power and privilege in the United

States.

Not surprising, unexamined privilege frequently contributes to the manifestation

of unintentional classist, racist, and sexist behavior (Sue et al., 2008). The first

domain of the multicultural competencies, counselor awareness of biases and assumptions,

underscores the need for White counselors to examine their own "White privilege"

as well as other unexamined biases they might possess so that they can become more

aware of their social impact on others.

Pseudointellectual Resistance

Another form of resistance to multiculturalism is often grounded in pseudointellectual,

noncontextual, and culturally

uninformed perspectives of human development and

counseling

practices. Examples of this form of resistance come from research and clinical practices

that are anchored in heuristics. Heuristics, or rules of thumb derived from experience,

are used as cognitive shortcuts that people commonly implement when making decisions

or solving problems. Unfortunately, heuristics do not necessarily entertain multicultural

perspectives.

In the counseling

room, heuristics may be applied when meeting a client-consumer for the first time.

Heuristic assumptions made about clients in the early phase of

counseling predictably affect counselors' case conceptualizations. When implemented

in multicultural counseling

situations, heuristic assumptions are commonly manifested in universal assumptions

or generalizations regarding issues related to disabilities, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic

status, sexual orientation, and so on, and neglect the heterogeneity of

culturally diverse

clients. It is important to recognize that heuristics can also occur among client-counselor

dyads of similar cultural background (Bargh & Chartrand, 2000; Fu, Chiu, Morris,

&Young, 2007). The perceived sameness that ensues from such heuristic assumptions

is likely to contribute to cultural miscues in such

counseling situations.

A further challenge in the multicultural counseling

movement involves the need for empirically based research to validate the efficacy

of the AMCD multicultural competencies model. This factor is listed in the Pseudointellectual

Resistance section because far too often there is questioning about the efficacy

of the competencies in professional practice. As noted in another article included

in this special issue (Duran, Firehammer, & Gonzalez, 2008), a "prove it" attitude

often persists among counselors who continue to discount the relevance of cultural,

historical, and sociopolitical perspectives in

counseling

. Several multicultural researchers are addressing this form of resistance by implementing

empirical research that is aimed at evaluating the efficacy of the competencies in

controlled situations (D'Andrea & Foster Heckman, 2008).

Promise and Challenges

In the introduction section of this article, we referred to the promise of multiculturalism

as embodied by optimism, dreams, transformation, and vision. This vision is for a

counseling

profession that is anchored in the values and practices of cultural competence.

Such a vision for this helping profession places cultural diversity at the centerfold

of new and increasingly complex

counseling

theories and practices, theories and practices that reflect counselors' increasing

awareness of the impact of global issues on human development. The optimism inherent

in this vision lies in a strength-based paradigm that promotes "multicultural" perspectives

versus a singular worldview.

Indeed, there is promise on multiple fronts. One reported index of such promise comes

from the work of Norcross, Hedges, and Prochaska (2002), who described possible psychotherapy

trends for the next decade from their interviews with 62 psychotherapists. The results

of their research indicated that the following helping orientations are anticipated

to increase in the coming years: cognitive-behavioral therapy, culture-sensitive/multicultural

counseling

, interpersonal therapy, technical eclecticism, and theoretical integration (Norcross

et al., 2002). These researchers further asserted that

a major challenge for the field of psychotherapy will be to

discover creative ways to integrate the values and worldviews of

multiple cultures within the discourse of efficiency and evidence

that currently dominate health care. Such integration would produce

a healthier future for the field and for populations that turn to

psychotherapy to help them develop healthier and more balanced

approaches to life. (Norcross et al., 2002, p. 322)

As the aforementioned statement suggests, to have and realize the promise of multiculturalism

requires integrated helping strategies. A systemic approach to multicultural

counseling

and cultural competence has been recently reintroduced by numerous professionals

with a focus on applied psychology and social engineering (Andres-Hyman, Ortiz, Anez,

Paris, & Davidson, 2006; D'Andrea & Daniels, 1995; Fouad & Arredondo, 2007). As early

as 1977, academicians and clinicians were voicing a need for counselors to incorporate

a systemic approach in their

counseling

focus (Gunnings & Simpkins, 1977). Scholars predicted that nearly 20 years later

the next wave of cultural interventions would likely include a focus on systemic

factors, applied psychology, and social engineering (White & Parham, 1990). The social

engineering aspects of a counselor's role require her or him to recognize that the

etiology of a client's distress is not simply an intrapsychic phenomenon but oftentimes

a sociocultural and environmental one. Thus, restricting interventions to intrapsychic

elements alone renders clients still vulnerable to the same social pathology that

instigated their entry into

counseling

in the first place. Attending to systemic elements of distress requires counselors

to look at institutions and agencies as well as their own policies and practices

when addressing the psychological needs of

culturally

different clients.

In the midst of all of the past achievements described earlier and the promises and

opportunities outlined in this section, multicultural advocates are urged to maintain

appropriate vigilance as the movement continues to evolve and progress in the future.

Commenting on this issue, Parham (2004) cautioned against viewing the past progress

that has been realized by the multicultural

counseling

movement as a plateau rather than a process in need of ongoing innovation. He likened

the progress made in the fields of

counseling

and psychology over the past 30 years to the achievements of the desegregation movement

of the 1950s and 1960s, where schools, buses, lunch counters, voting booths, and

other public accommodations were the targets of intervention.

Although Parham (2004) acknowledged that the desegregation movement resulted in a

broad range of successes from a social justice perspective, he also stressed that

the successes of desegregation is a far cry from true integration. He further asserted

that having

culturally

different people now able to occupy the same spaces as their White counterparts

in professional associations, editorial boards, and policy-making positions is not

the ultimate standard by which to judge the future of the multicultural movement.

Rather, questions must be raised about how the policies and practices of institutions

and agencies have changed as a function of the desegregation that has occurred. The

answers to such questions are likely to lead to a more accurate and informed understanding

of the overall progress to promote justice in contemporary society in general and

within the mental health professions in particular.

New Opportunities and Challenges

Just as cultural diversity is a fact of life in the United States, cultural competency

is core to the daily education, research, and practice of professional counselors.

The present opportunities and challenges of cultural competency are part of the current

reality, and others will emerge over time. Multiple-heritage populations, issues

related to religion and spirituality, and global immigration are but a few of the

opportunities and challenges that

culturally competent counselors currently face.

In the next 10 to 20 years, counselor training will need to broaden the cultural

competency lens even further as the multiple-heritage population in the United States

increases. Biracial and multiracial

children

and families have worldviews that require more counselor understanding and sensitivity.

However, if counselors recognize only surface structure elements like "race" in the

biracial/multiracial discussion and ignore a deeper structure analysis of other "cultural"

factors (i.e., religious/spiritual, socioeconomic, sexual issues, and the unique

identities of multiple-heritage individuals), they will not have as thorough an understanding

as is necessary to effectively deal with more

diverse

and complex aspects of these persons' development.

Religion and culture are other intersecting dimensions of human diversity, offering

optimism and challenge for culturally

competent counselors. An issue of particular importance for

culturally

competent counselors at the current time relates to the demonizing of an entire

faith-based group as a result of the widespread perception that persons who are Muslim

are terrorists. Cultural competency development is necessary to question the automatic

thoughts that are commonly generated about Muslim persons as a result of the negative

messages and stereotypes that are fostered by the mass media and other societal influences

about individuals in this cultural group (Chung et al., 2008).

Other areas of challenge lie with global immigration, natural disasters, global warming,

and economic shifts. The magnitude of these factors affects family stability and

mental well-being in many ways that need the attention of counselors and other mental

health professionals. These are some of the many life challenges

culturally

competent counselors must be prepared to address in the coming years. Understandably,

these events have a differential impact on people in different locations and from

diverse backgrounds.

All of the challenges discussed in this article suggest that cultural competency

is more than a promise; it is a mandate for the counseling

profession. As was the case decades ago when social activists stood up for civil

rights and social justice against the forces of oppression, counselors are encouraged

to stand up now for better training, more resources, less bias, and greater levels

of professional proficiency. We counselors can turn to social justice leaders, such

as Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., and Cesar Chavez, among others, to learn from

their example about institutional and societal change strategies. As counselors,

we must engage these change-oriented strategies in universities and work settings

alike and do so based on higher order good rather than on personal gratification.

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Patricia Arredondo, Office of Academic Affairs, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee;

Zoila G.Tovar-Blank, Department of Counseling Psychology, Arizona State University;

Thomas A. Parham, Counseling and Health Services, University of California, Irvine.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Patricia Arredondo,

Office of Academic Affairs, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 215 Chapman Hall,

2310 East Hartford Avenue, Milwaukee, WI 53211 (e-mail: arredondo at uwm.edu).

Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.com

Publication Information:

Article Title: Challenges and Promises of Becoming a Culturally Competent Counselor

in a Sociopolitical Era of Change and Empowerment. Contributors: Patricia Arredondo

- author, Zoila G. Tovar-Blank - author, Thomas A. Parham - author. Journal Title:

Journal of Counseling and Development. Volume: 86. Issue: 3. Publication Year: 2008.

Page Number: 261+. COPYRIGHT 2008 American Counseling Association; COPYRIGHT 2008

Gale, Cengage Learning

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