Ethical And Culturally Relevant Strategies In Counseling

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Some of the most important skills college counselors and student affairs professionals need to develop are ethical and culturally relevant strategies for establishing and maintaining counseling relationships. According to Nina Brown (2011), developing cultural sensitivity “is both an intellectual and emotional endeavor” (p. 132). Cultural awareness incorporates factors such as age and gender, race and ethnicity, socioeconomic class and other identity variables. The cultural competent counselor recognizes that all these identities can be combined in an infinite number of ways, and even when individuals may seem to come from similar backgrounds, they may perceive their personal identities differently. As the multiplicity of cultures and diversity continues to increase in higher education in the United States, counselors utilize relevant strategies to practice ethically and culturally sensitive. One strategy counselors can use to enhance their cultural sensitivity (Brown, 2011) is to explore their own development as well as how their own culture has impacted their personal values, beliefs and attitudes. This way, counselors can have a better understanding of how those factors are projected onto the students. In addition, college counselors can suspend judgment, understand and appreciate differences, establish clear boundaries and …show more content…

First, to aid my multicultural competency, I attended courses specifically on the issues individuals from diverse backgrounds and with multiple identities experience. I was highly encouraged to receive personal counseling to identify and work through personal issues. I also received feedback from practicum supervisor and individual supervisor to ensure that I was developing appropriate counseling skills as well as practicing in an ethical

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