Assignment: AMCD Multicultural Competencies
Assignment: AMCD Multicultural Competencies
Assignment: AMCD Multicultural Competencies
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Assignment: AMCD Multicultural Competencies
1. Response to Peers: Do my peer responses indicate that I have read, thought about, and selectively responded to my colleagues discussion posts in a complex way? Are my responses engaging, insightful, reflective of current events, or relevant to some experience I have had? Rather than just demonstrating agreement with the ideas presented by a colleague, or randomly quoting some resource in order to satisfy a formulaic inclusion of a citation and a reference, you are encouraged to provide an engaging response post which specifically builds upon the ideas of your colleague in an original and substantial manner, including relevant professional resources that go beyond what you are required to read for the course.
1. (A. Ola)
In this post, I will briefly describe the strengths and limitations of the American Multicultural Counseling and Development (AMCD) Multicultural Counseling Competencies. They I will share two recommendations that might enhance the current guidelines. Finally, I will explain how my recommendations can assist counselors in working with culturally diverse clients.
AMCD Multicultural Competencies
The American Multicultural Counseling and Development (AMCD) Multicultural Counseling Competencies have both strengths and limitations. The American Counseling Association (2014) Code of Ethics requires counselors to display multicultural sensitivity to the needs of an increasingly more culturally diverse nation of people (ACA, 2014). The development of the AMCD Multicultural Counseling Competencies (1996) provides a guide for counselors to identify and address the dynamics of power, privilege, and oppression that influence the counseling relationship (Ratts, Singh, Nassar-McMillan, Butler, & McCullough, 2015). Having counselors complete on-going self-assessment and receive additional training and knowledge about culturally diverse clientele is a positive step towards promoting understanding and sensitivity to the issues of culturally different people (Hays, 2016; Sue & Sue, 2016). However, the theories, interventions, and techniques taught in educational institutions are developed from the viewpoint of the dominant culture in the United States and lacks the cultural perspectives of minority groups, thereby limiting the effectiveness of implementation, despite counselor initiative (Sue & Sue, 2016).
Recommendations to Enhance Guidelines
McIntosh (1990) encourages counselors to look at ways to limit their level of privilege instead of constructing and acting on the belief of raising the level of access of minorities in the United States to meet their standards of privilege. Advocacy efforts at the macrosystemic level would focus less on bringing others up to the standard of the dominant culture, but more on the leveling of the standards of equality, to encompass all people, and the acceptance of their cultural diversity. I believe that creating new competencies that take into account the worldview of the worlds majority as the standard for developing cultural competence and skills enhancement will allow counselors to learn from the experiences of the histories written from the perspective of other cultures. Also requiring institutions of training for professional helpers to develop research findings that are based on the positive achievements of minorities and culturally diverse populations, will allow for the advancement of beliefs and attitude formation that are more realistic of the experiences diverse clients (Sue & Sue, 2016). I would also like to see an acceptance of boundary crossing and self-disclosure as a norm for establishing rapport and trust with culturally diverse populations that may lack trust due to a history of oppression and the impact of microaggressions committed against them (Sue & Sue, 2016).
