Multicultural Counseling Competencies

Definition

In a broad sense, multicultural counseling competencies are skills that counselors and other mental health professionals possess and continually expand that enable them to work effectively with clients who are culturally different from themselves. The process of gaining multicultural competencies or becoming multiculturally competent involves specialized training and supervision, practice with diverse clients, meaningful personal relationships with individuals who are culturally different from oneself, and examination of one's own life experiences. This process is believed to be lifelong and ongoing, as our society is continually changing. Multicultural competence includes, but is not limited to, knowledge about the following:

• Various cultural groups that coexist in modern U.S. society, including their histories and present realities (this should also include knowledge of immigration patterns, acculturation, and biculturalism)
• Theories of identity ...