Cultural Competence

Self awareness is only the beginning of multicultural awareness and competence. Many variables are included in cultural competence. Speci?cally, three critical characteristics have been identi?ed as essential for cultural competence: scienti?c mindedness, skills in dynamic sizing, and pro?ciency with a particular cultural group .

Scienti?c mindedness requires forming and testing hypotheses, rather than making faulty assumptions and/or conclusions about the status of ethnoculturally different Multicultural and Diversity Issues

Counselor as a Cultural Being

Being aware of yourself as a cultural being has been described as a prerequisite for competent multicultural counseling. In fact, the ?rst multicultural competency discussed by D. W. Sue, Arredondo, and McDavis states, “Culturally skilled examiners have moved from being culturally unaware to being aware and sensitive to their own cultural heritage and to valuing and respecting differences” .

For this activity, you should work with a partner.

A. Describe yourself as a cultural being to your partner. What is your ethnic/cultural heritage? How did you come to know your heritage? How is your heritage manifested in your life today? What parts of your heritage are you especially proud of ? Is there anything about your heritage that you are not proud of ? Why? B. What do you think constitutes a “mentally healthy” individual? Can you think of times when there are exceptions to your understanding of this? C. Has there ever been a time in your life when you experienced racism or discrimination? Describe this experience to your partner. What were your thoughts and feelings related to this experience? D. Can you relate a time when your own thoughts about people who are different from you affected how you treated them? Would you do anything differently now? E. How would you describe the “American culture”? What parts of this culture do you embrace? What parts do you reject? How does your internalization of American culture impact what you think constitutes a “mentally healthy individual”? At the conclusion of the activity, take time to re?ect and possibly make a few journal entries about anything you may have learned about your cultural identity.

The Imperative of Cultural Competence

The 2000 U.S. census indicates steady population growth of cultural and ethnic minorities over the past several decades . Of the 281 million people living in the United States, approximately 80 million identify themselves as other than White, or of Hispanic origin . The census shows that diversity is increasing in nearly every state, making it more likely that mental health professionals in every setting will work with clients of different ethnocultural backgrounds than themselves. This is an exciting and daunting possibility; exciting for the richness that a diverse population extends to our communities, and for the professional and personal growth that accompanies cross cultural interactions; daunting because of the increased responsibility of having to employ culturally relevant approaches in our work. Hall makes a case for the idea of “cultural malpractice” for those who practice with inadequate knowledge of cultural dynamics and warns that without signi?cant changes in the way cultural issues are addressed, psychology will become obsolescent. The imperative is clear, especially in the context of the clinical interview.

To remain a viable helping resource for our whole population, we must have the necessary knowledge and understanding of culture as it impacts mental health.

Interviewer, Know Thyself You say you’re White, that you’re American. Don’t you know that MEANS something? Where I come from, being Black MEANS something!” -Victor; from the movie The Color of Fear Culture can be generally understood as the medium in which all human development takes place. Everything we value, know to be real, and assume to be “normal” is in?uenced by our past and present cultures. From a counseling perspective, answers to overarching questions such as, “What constitutes a healthy personality?” or “What should a person be or become” are largely in?uenced by the counselor’s culture of origin . For these reasons, the best place to begin in our quest to be culturally competent interviewers is with a thorough examination of ourselves as cultural beings. What does it mean to be from the culture we are from? According to D. W. Sue, Arredondo, and McDavis , increasing awareness of your own culture is a precondition for moving from an ethnocentric, culturally encapsulated perspective to a truly multicultural perspective. When we have the ability to un372 Interviewing Special Populationsderstand how our thinking, feeling, and knowing are in?uenced by our culture, we begin to obtain the capacity to understand another’s perspective without imposing our own. D. W. Sue et al. de?nes speci?c parameters for practicing in a culturally competent manner .

-Thomas Merton, A Thomas Merton Reader Many counselors may be continuing to suffer from cultural encapsulation and the selfreference criterion in their counseling practice.

-Paul Pedersen, Counseling across Cultures Counseling has been used as an instrument of oppression as it has been designed to transmit a certain set of individualistic cultural values. Traditional counseling has harmed minorities and women. Counseling and therapy have been the handmaiden of the status quo.

-Derald Wing Sue

We live in a multicultural society and, consequently, no matter what our own ethnocultural background may be, we occasionally work professionally with people who are much different from ourselves. This fact makes it crucial for us to broaden our perspectives and increase our cultural sensitivity. After reading this chapter, you will know:

• About the imperative of cultural competence and the importance of understanding your cultural biases and cultural self.

• Basic issues in interviewing clients with American Indian, African American,

Hispanic American, and Asian American ethnocultural backgrounds.

• Basic issues to address when interviewing gay, lesbian, transgendered, disabled, or religiously committed clients.

• The importance of context to understanding client ethnocultural orientation,

family environment, community environment, communication style, and language usage.

• Different culture bound syndromes and matters of etiquette to consider when

interviewing minority clients.

CHAPTER OBJECTIVESRELATIONSHIP IN THE CONTEXT OF DIVERSITY Throughout this text, we emphasize the importance of the therapeutic relationship. We believe that relationship is foundational to everything mental health professionals do- including clinical interviewing. Many mental health professionals emphasize the centrality of a therapeutic relationship in doing effective multicultural counseling . But what are essential components of such a relationship? What are helpful but optional components? Toward what should we be striving, as we become more multiculturally sensitive interviewers? How can we avoid cultural arrogance, the self referencing syndrome, and counseling as oppression when working with diverse clients? This chapter provides food for thought and pieces of the puzzle, but obtaining the answers to these profound questions is a life long endeavor.