Towards Developing Multicultural Competence: My Reflections

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Towards Developing Multicultural Competence: My Reflections

Amina Mahmood

*prepared for Counseling Psychology Portfolio, October 2006

The University of Iowa

Multicultural competence for psychologists has been defined in terms of acquiring multicultural knowledge, awareness, and skills (Sue & Sue, 2003). When applying for graduate school I specifically searched for programs (clinical or counseling psychology) that emphasized training in multicultural issues. Unlike many applicants I met during admissions open houses I was not interested in researching a specific DSM diagnosis, rather I was interested in exploring the influence of culture on psychological health and well-being, and the interaction between cultural factors and psychological interventions. In this paper I will reflect on the multicultural training I have received in my graduate program and my progress towards becoming a multiculturally competent practitioner. I will also identify areas for continued work during my internship year.

The University of Iowa’s Counseling Psychology program purported to include at least two faculty members who specifically addressed multicultural issues in research and practice and this contributed to my decision to attend graduate school in Iowa. I cannot recall a single class taught by the Counseling Psychology faculty that ignored cultural diversity. The impact of this became evident as I encountered clinical psychology students in my Ethics and Professional Issues, History and Systems and Cognitive Development courses. I clearly remember a Latina clinical psychology student’s rebuttal to my statement that client’s cultural background impacts the effectiveness of the psychological intervention utilized and modifications to interventions need to be made. Her opinion was that as long as a treatment is empirically supported it works regardless of the client’s cultural background. A Korean clinical psychology student disagreed that graduate programs in psychology need to make efforts to recruit members of diverse cultural, racial and ethnic groups. She stated that if the psychologist is trained well her/his cultural, racial and ethnic background is irrelevant to the therapeutic relationship! Needless to say my counseling psychology peers and I were unable to fathom the casual way in which these two ethnic minority psychologists-in-training deemed multicultural issues irrelevant.

Multicultural issues are clearly emphasized in the academic courses offered by the Counseling Psychology program. Additionally, various research teams led by faculty members have also influenced my multicultural development. I have worked primarily with Dr. William Liu on his social class research team, and with Dr. Saba Ali on issues of feminism and religion. Both teams are centered on aspects of diversity: social class diversity, feminism/women’s issues, and religion. The goals of research are to contribute to the literature and to offer practitioners with knowledge, awareness, and possibly skills for working with populations for whom these aspects of diversity are salient.

The research I have been involved in, and the coursework I have completed in the program are central to my development as a practitioner seeking to attain multicultural competence. My definition of multicultural issues has expanded in graduate school and is no longer limited to issues pertaining to ethnic minority populations, as it once did during my undergraduate years.

I have consciously selected practicum experiences that have allowed me access to diverse populations, and aided my progress towards becoming a multiculturally competent practitioner. The aspects of diversity I have encountered include but is not limited to sexual orientation, gender, religion, age, social class, presenting problem, race, ethnic and cultural background. The practicum sites I have trained in have all pushed me to move beyond my comfort zone. For example, my neuropsychology practicum taught me to establish rapport and build trust with clients in a short time frame. My practicum at Shelter House taught me that therapy does not need to be conducted for fifty minutes, once a week, and it does not always happen behind closed doors. At WRAC I learned the importance of collaborating with the client and erasing power differentials. I also learned to reach out to community resources when my client needed something I couldn’t offer her. Receiving clinical supervision from psychologists adhering to diverse theoretical orientations has also contributed to my multicultural development. Each supervisor has provided me with a glimpse of their conceptualization of clients and approaches to treatment. This has helped me discover and finesse my approach towards case conceptualization and treatment.

I feel confident regarding my knowledge and awareness of multicultural issues. I am also cognizant of my internal processes and my stimulus value as a practitioner. The majority of my clinical supervisors have encouraged me to engage in introspection. This has enabled me to become aware of the biases I bring into my clinical work, and has helped to identify my limitations as a practitioner. Although I have worked with diverse individuals during my clinical training, I would like to gain more training working with ethnic minority individuals. Specifically I have only worked with three South Asian clients, and have not worked with any American Muslim clients; two populations which hold my clinical interest.

Although I possess a good amount of ‘textbook’ knowledge pertaining to racial and ethnic populations I have not had much clinical experience working with these populations. Similarly I have devoted a significant amount of time engaging in research pertaining to the American Muslim population, and am planning to study South Asian American Muslim women’s help seeking attitudes for my dissertation. I would like to apply my theoretical and research knowledge to these specific populations so that I may strengthen my multicultural counseling skills. As I am searching for internship sites I am consciously highlighting sites offering major rotations with ethnic minority populations, and sites that are committed to training multiculturally competent professionals.

Becoming multicultural competent is a journey not a destination—by this I mean that we are constantly striving to achieve multicultural competence whether we have been in clinical practice for one year or ten. Recognizing that achieving multicultural competence is a process ensures that we engage in a process of self-evaluation and reflection, and continue to seek opportunities that further out development towards becoming multiculturally competent.

References

Sue, D. W., & Sue, D. (2003). Counseling the Culturally Diverse: Theory and

Practice. NY: John Wiley & Sons.