Multicultural Counseling Competence

Multicultural counseling competence refers to the ability of counselors to acknowledge the presence of their own diverse backgrounds, attitudes, and values in conjunction with the diverse backgrounds, beliefs, and attitudes clients bring to counseling sessions. Multicultural counseling competence is a specific term that encompasses [Page 1111]the various considerations counselors take into account in order to serve clients in an ethically responsible way that embraces their differences. Becoming a multiculturally competent counselor is a multiphasic and ongoing process for which a set of guidelines has been set forth. This entry briefly introduces multicultural counseling, multicultural counseling competencies, cultural differences, and the multicultural counseling process.