Problem: As a student, how will you respond to this classmate with in text citation, references and as questions?
Multicultural competence is truly an ethical concern because multicultural knowledge is part of being a competent counselor. When multicultural competence is lacking, miscommunications can subtly and significantly impact the counseling process. Maybe a counselor perceives a client's minimal eye contact and quiet demeanor as avoidance rather than recognizing that, in his client's culture, it shows respect. Or, perhaps encouraging a client to make individualistic decisions without considering how strongly his culture focuses on the family or community will create conflict and decrease rapport. Counselors may also miss the influence of racism, discrimination, or immigration-related stressors and increctly identify the cause of a client's anxiety or depression.
ACA Code of Ethics Section C.2.a. states that counselors "practice only within their areas of competence" and A.2.c. states counselors "understand the influence of culture, race, ethnicity, and diversity on themselves and their clients" (ACA, 2014). By continually self-reflecting on our personal biases, seeking supervision when we are feeling incompetent, and seeking out multicultural training we can uphold ethical standards. Codes of ethics provided by the ACA, ASCA, and AACC allow counselors to have clear ethical guidelines to fall back on - ones that allow us to provide the utmost respect, humility, and care to our clients, even if their beliefs differ from our own. Need Assignment Help?