The Multicultural Program Development Pyramid is a five-tiered framework outlining stages of multicultural counseling training (MCT) program development. The pyramid is intended to serve as a guide to help program developers formulate their own unique MCT programs. The pyramid lays out a path of critical choice points in MCT development, beginning with the generation of an explicit philosophy of training and proceeding through the stages of identifying training objectives, selecting instructional strategies, choosing from among several proposed program designs, and evaluating the program. Use of the pyramid encourages the critical examination of a full range of choices at each stage. Implications of the pyramid for current MCT, the scientist-practitioner model, and the future of MCT research and development are discussed.

Multicultural Training Reexamination, Operationalization, and Integration

Seeing the Forest and the Trees - the Complexities of Culture in Practice Becoming a Culturally Responsive Therapist The Clinician's Mirror - Cultural Self-Assessment Entering Another's World -Understanding Client's Identities and Contexts Making Meaningful Connections - Establishing Respect and Rapport Sorting Things Out -Culturally Responsive Assessment Putting Culture to the Test -Considerations with Standardized Testing Making Sense and Moving On - Cultural Responsive Diagnosis and the DSM-IV How To Help Best - Culturally Responsive Therapy Practice Doesn't Make Perfect, But it Sure Does Help - a Final Case Example.

Addressing Cultural Complexities in Practice: A Framework for Clinicians and Counselors

The authors discuss the various approaches to multicultural counseling training currently being used in counselor education programs. In doing so, they outline a developmental framework that describes the types of training thought to be available to counseling students at this time.



Los autores discuten los diferentes tipos de entrenamiento multicultrual que se usan hoy en dia en los programas educativos de consejeria. Al hacerlo, proporcionan un esquema del estado actual de desarrollo que describe los tipos de entrenamiento que se cree que estan disponibles actualmente para los estudiantes de consejeria.

Exploring the Different Levels of Multicultural Counseling Training in Counselor Education

Training multiculturally competent counselors has become a timely topic, but what underlying philosophical assumptions shape this issue? The multicultural movement has indeed contributed to our greater and much needed understanding and appreciation of the real differences among racial, ethnic, and cultural groups. The current focus on the influence of the cultural background of the individual, however, need not be at the expense of the equally important influences of individual differences and human universal tenets. The new decade for multi-culturalism calls for balance.

This article attempts to redefine multicultural counseling using an Afrocentric, holistic, optimal theory that views individuals as unique manifestations of spirit, thus sharing a common core. From this perspective, all counseling is multicultural. Multicultural counseling competencies are then reconceptualized as fundamental counseling skills achieved through self-knowledge and a shift in worldview. As the counselor brings into conscious awareness the various aspects of himself or herself, he or she becomes aware of the universal interconnectedness and interdependence of all life. With this new holistic worldview, the differences among people take on a new meaning.

This article explores the consequences of an alternate worldview on the way we conceptualize multiculturalism. The implications of this redefinition of multicultural counseling for training, practice, and research are explored.

El entrenamiento de consejeros multiculturalmente competentes ha llegado a ser un tema oportuno? pero cuales son las asunciones filosoficas que dan forma a este asunto? El movimiento multicultural si ha contribuido a nuestro entendimiento y a la apreciacion de las diferencias verdaderas entre grupos raciales, etnicos, y culturales. Sin embargo, el enfoque general de la influencia de la historia cultural del individuo no tiene que ser a costa de las influencias igualmente importantes de diferencias indiviudales y credos humanos universales. La nueva decada de multiculturalismo exige un balance.

Este articulo intenta redefinir la consejeria multicultural utilizando un teoria afrocentrica, holistica, y optima que ve a los individuos como manifestaciones unicas del espiritu, compartiendo una esencia comun. Desde esta perspectiva, toda la consejeria es multicultural. Se reconceptualizan las competencias de consejeria multicultural como talentos fundamentales de consejeria adquiridos por un auto-conocimiento y un cambio de vision universal. Mientras el consejero lleva varios aspectos de si mismo al consciente, el o ella se da cuenta de la interconexion e interdependencia universal de todos los seres. Con esta nueva vision universal holistica, las diferencias entre la gente llega a tener un significado nuevo.

Este articulo explora las consecuencias de una vision universal alternativa de como conceptualizamos el multiculturalismo. Se investigan las implicaciones de esta redifinicion de consejeria multicultural en entrenamiento, practica, e investigacion.

A Redefinition of Multicultural Counseling

This article takes a universal approach to multicultural counseling by exploring the commonalities of the “minority” experience and proposing transcultural models for multicultural counseling training.

Taking a Universal Approach to Multicultural Counseling

Literature on the counseling needs of special populations typically has focused on the inadequate treatment those populations receive. Counselor education programs have responded by developing courses that target specific populations such as women, minorities, or disabled people. There are serious drawbacks, however, to this proliferation of specialized courses. In this article the authors discuss those drawbacks and argue that counselor education programs should include an integrated course that facilitates student self-awareness in conjunction with practical experience with a variety of clients.

Training Counselors for Work with Special Populations: A Second Look.

The counselling literature pertaining to special needs clients describes the problems inherent when counsellors work with clients who are unfamiliar or different from themselves. Increasingly there are demands for additional counsellor training to meet the needs of specific groups such as ethnic or racial minorities, elderly persons, or individuals with disabilities. In this paper a review is presented as a cross-section of strategies developed for training counsellors to work with these populations. It is proposed that these strategies have broader application than the client populations for whom they were initially designed. Training that utilizes these approaches could enable counsellors to develop a foundation from which to work effectively with a wide variety of special populations.

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Susan A. Rungta

Papers

Training Counselors for Work with Special Populations: A Second Look.

Training Counsellors to Work with Diverse Populations:An Integrated Approach