Multicultural competency Essay

Multicultural competency is indeed an essential tool required in dealing with clients who have different races, perceptions and cultures. Having this skill will be of a great advantage in the progress of counselling sessions. Moreover, according to Pedersen, multiculturalism is â€Å"a wide range of multiple groups without grading, comparing, or ranking them as better or worse than one another and without denying the very distinct and complementary or even contradictory perspectives that each group brings with it† (1991, p. 4). To effectively handle multiculturalism situations in counselling, counselors must develop different levels of awareness which are the following: â€Å"self-awareness, awareness of one’s own culture, awareness of racism, sexism and poverty, awareness of individual differences, awareness of other cultures and awareness of diversity. † More so, to be successful in obtaining multicultural competency, counselors must also be aware of different theories and specific counselling practices. But the most important point to remember is that counselors must first build on a â€Å"sense of worth† for their respective cultural backgrounds before they can start understanding other cultures (Locke, 1986, pp. 119-137). Response to Post No. 2 Jennifer Weeks Among the three weaknesses mentioned by the counselor, I think that the problem on terminating an interview with a client is the counselor’s main problem. In any session, I think time is of the essence. Clients pay the counselors per hour so they should get their money’s worth for very second that they spend with their counselors. In line with this, counselors should develop a systematic way of establishing client-counselor relationship and at the same time effectively and quickly resolving the issues of the clients in order to maximize the time allotted for the sesssion. Also, counselors should learn how to end the interview without being rude or impolite. This can be done by setting up a timeline for the session and preparing fillers which will be used to divert the flow of the conversation if it gets beyond the timeline or the focus for that specific session. References Locke, D. C. (1990). A not so provincial view of multicultural counseling. Counselor Education and Supervision, 30, 18-25. Pedersen, P. B. (1991). Introduction to the special issue on multiculturalism as a fourth force in counseling. Journal of Counseling and Development, 70, 4.