SECTION I – THE MULTIPLE DIMENSIONS OF MULTICULTURAL
COUNSELING AND THERAPY
PART I THE AFFECTIVE AND CONCEPTUAL DIMENSIONS OF
MULTICULTURAL COUNSELING/THERAPY
CHAPTER 1
THE MULTICULTURAL JOURNEY TO CULTURAL COMPETENCE:
PERSONAL NARRATIVES
Chapter Outline
- Emotional Roadblocks to the Path of Cultural Competence
a. Strong emotions such as anger, sadness, and defensiveness are displayed when discussing experiences of race, culture, gender, and other sociodemographic variables.
b. These feelings can enhance or negate a deeper understanding of the worldviews of culturally diverse clients.
c. When these intense feelings are left unexplored, they can block our ability to hear the voices of those most oppressed and disempowered (Sue, 2011).
d. Multiculturalism deals with real human experiences and it would behoove the reader to understand his/her emotional reactions on the journey to cultural competence.
e. A quote from Sara Winter (a White psychologist) is provided to show common emotions and reactions that White people have when discussing racism. These include feelings of guilt, anger, defensiveness, helplessness and a desire to minimize and ignore racial issues.
f. In contrast, a quote from an African American male is provided which details the notion that minimizing and ignoring race is not an option for him. He discusses that racist events are not isolated events but rather one in a long line of discriminatory acts experienced over a lifetime.
- Mark Kiselica’s Personal and Professional Journey as a White Person: Reactions to Counseling the Culturally Diverse: Theory and Practice (CCD)
a. Dr. Kiselica felt much anger and disgust after reading CCD for the first time.
b. Dr. Kiselica felt defensive because his White ancestors did not perpetrate any offenses against people of color.
c. He tried to make sense of his emotions and reread the book in spite of his initial rejection of it.
d. His family was poor and also suffered injustices in coming to America.
e. His memories of his early childhood helped him view CCD from a different perspective.
f. He began to empathize towards the plight of people of color by getting in touch with his own family experiences.
g. Next, he realized that he has directly contributed to the oppressive system that keeps people of color down by displaying stereotypes toward people of color, laughing at racist jokes, and using the “N” word to refer to African Americans.
h. Dr. Kiselica admits to being racist in a world of well-meaning Whites.
i. He struggled with how to go forward in his process.
j. Dr. Kiselica decided to take on a pre-doctoral internship in Newark, New Jersey where he socialized with and was exposed to various racial and ethnic groups.
k. Later in his career, he wrote personal narratives about his racial/cultural awakening and continues to write to this day.
l. He graciously thanks Dr. Sue for all of his support and mentorship along racial awakening.
- Le Ondra Clark’s Personal and Professional Journey as a Racial and Ethnic Minority Individual: Reactions to Counseling the Culturally Diverse: Theory and Practice
a. Dr. Clark was invited to contribute her personal narrative to CCD by Dr. Sue after he read about how his work influenced her educational journey in The Counseling Psychologist.
b. Dr. Clark grew up in Southern California where her mother was a mental health therapist. Having observed that her mother’s practice was comprised of middle and upper class White clients, she assumed that therapy was a luxury intended for White, middle-class individuals, and she quickly wrote off the profession.
c. Her beliefs about therapy were challenged during her undergraduate studies when she worked at a residential treatment facility and witnessed racial and ethnic minority youth greatly benefiting from mental health services.
d. Dr. Clark was first exposed to Dr. Sue’s work during her Master’s program at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She obtained her doctorate in Counseling Psychology there as well.
e. Confronting Midwest culture was very difficult for Dr. Clark. Not only were there few racial and ethnic minorities on campus, but also she learned that most of her classmates had not come into contact with a racial/ethnic minority until high school or even college. This caused her to feel distant from them and to feel like a foreigner.
f. It wasn’t until her first Multicultural Counseling course where she was assigned CCD that she began to feel comfortable and energized.
g. The distance she had been feeling with her classmates began to shrink as they progressed through CCD and she witnessed their growing racial awareness and willingness to discuss privilege.
h. While in the doctoral program, Dr. Clark was exposed to Dr. Sue’s writings on micraoggressions. She began to reflect on the various microagggressions she was experiencing outside of her department.
i. During her first practicum at a mental health agency, Dr. Clark consistently referred back to CCD for culturally appropriate treatment strategies. She was offered a job at this agency.
j. As one of the only Black clinicians at this agency, Dr. Clark began to reflect on the idea that there were so few clinicians of color in Madison, despite that 90% of the clients were Black, Latino, or Hmong.
k. She began to feel angry and restless about the poverty, racism, and various governmental systems that affected her clients’ lives.
l. Dr. Clark received an offer to speak about her clinical work with African American women to a group of Black women from the community. This got her interested in ways to inform the public about mental health issues for ethnic minorities.
m. Dr. Clark was chosen as a fellow in the American Psychological Association (APA) Minority Fellowship Program (MFP). This offered her the opportunity to research systemic barriers in mental health, and brought her to Capitol Hill where she advocated for continued federal funding of the APA MFP.
n. While speaking with her state representative about the state of affairs in Madison for racial minorities, she became tearful and realized that she would like to work in the policy arena.
o. Dr. Clark mentions the various support systems she had throughout her graduate studies journey and thanks various professors, supervisors, and mentors.
p. Ultimately, Dr. Clark became the first social scientist to participate in the California Science and Technology Policy Fellowship, where she advises legislators about the policies that affect the mental health of racial and ethnic minorities.
q. She ends by thanking Dr. Sue for his pioneering work that helped make her success and the success of others like her possible.
- Derald Wing Sue’s Personal and Professional Journey as a Person of Color: The Heart and Soul of Counseling the Culturally Diverse
a. Dr. Sue is grateful to Drs. Kiselica and Clark for sharing their experiences with the readers of this book.
b. He appreciates Dr. Kiselica’s honesty in confronting his own racism and highlights how important it was that Dr. Kiselica did not allow his defensive or angry reactions to sabotage his own self-exploration.
c. Next, Dr. Sue speaks to how Dr. Clark’s story is one of invalidation and silencing and how she has overcome great odds to obtain her doctorate without losing her integrity or racial identity.
d. Dr. Sue states that many readers assert that the text is too emotional or political in nature, however, it is a labor of love and meant to improve conditions for all oppressed groups in society.
e. He underscores the idea that his anger is not directed at White Americans or the U.S., but rather at White supremacy, sexism, heterosexism, and all forms of bigotry and discrimination.
f. He goes on to state that we are all products of cultural conditioning and have inherited the racial, gender, and heterosexual biases of our country.
g. Finally, Dr. Sue talks about CCD’s debut in 1981, when it was received poorly from many colleagues who accused him of White bashing. However, scholars and students of color embraced the book and today it is the most frequently used text in multicultural counseling.
h. To understand the passion behind CCD, Dr. Sue goes onto describe his life experiences as a Chinese American.
i. He understands his commitment to social justice emanating from watching his parents deal with poverty and discrimination during his childhood.
j. He grew up in a close-knit family which was economically poor and experienced racism and discrimination.
k. Seeing his mother step in and encourage a physical fight between his brother and a White child instilled pride in his family, himself, and Chinese-American culture.
l. His colleagues in graduate school spoke of racial and economic hardships on an intellectual level, but Dr. Sue concluded to understand the worldviews of economic status and race, one has to emotionally understand their impacts as well.
m. In graduate school he felt like an outsider and the theories taught in his classes did not match his racial reality.
n. After working for a few years, Dr. Sue began to conduct research into Asian-American experiences and the counseling process and found that many people felt invalidated by current mental health practices.
o. Since then, Dr. Sue has dedicated his life to being an academic who fights for social justice, racial equality, and cultural competent practice through his writings, talks, lectures, and consultation with various organizations.
- Implications for Clinical Practice
a. Do not allow your own emotional reactions to negate the stories of the most disempowered in society.
b. Increase your personal interactions with diverse groups; experiential learning is as important as intellectual learning.
c. All of us have inherited biases—try to acknowledge them openly so that you can listen to your clients in a non-defensive way.
d. Experiences with people of color will enhance one’s cultural competence.
e. Explore yourself as a racial/cultural being.
f. Try to understand what your intense emotions mean for you when they arise.
g. Do not squelch dissent or disagreements. Open dialogue is crucial.
h. Take an active role in exploring yourself, as Mark Kiselica and Le Ondra Clark.
Lecture Openers/Extenders
To begin the lecture on this topic, students can be asked to share their personal reactions to the three narratives presented in this chapter. For example, did they expect to start a psychology textbook with such personal information from the author? It would be helpful to ask questions such as: What were your emotional reactions to the narratives? Were they different for each narrative? Which of the three narratives resonated with you the most? You will want to follow up with curiosity about students’ reactions (where might these reactions come from?) as well as make process comments about the different reactions among your students. For example, it is highly likely that students of color will have vastly different reactions than White students to the narratives. If your classroom lacks racial/ethnic diversity, students are likely to have different experiences based on gender, socioeconomic status, sexuality, ability, religion, and also environmental and social contexts (i.e., have they had a lot of contact with those from different racial/ethnic groups?).
As an alternative to the group discussion, one could open the lecture with a more intellectualized discussion of the importance of self-reflection and introspection in developing cultural competence, and highlight elements of each narrative to illustrate the concept. Implications for clinical practice can be discussed alongside each narrative. For example, you could discuss how Drs. Kiselica, Clark, and Sue might have approached therapy with diverse groups early in their journeys versus later on.
Discussion Questions
· What might be some of your own emotional roadblocks on the path of cultural competence?
· What were your emotional reactions as you read each narrative?
· Could you relate to any of the experiences shared in the narratives?
· What are your reactions to the quote by Sara Winter?
· What are some of your biases toward diverse groups?
· What were some of Dr. Kiselica’s obstacles to developing cultural competence?
· Can you identify any of your own potential obstacles to developing cultural competence?
· How were Dr. Clark’s and Dr. Sue’s graduate school experiences similar? How were they different?
· What is your reaction to the following statement: “Without awareness and knowledge of race, culture, and ethnicity, counselors and other helping professionals could unwittingly engage in cultural oppression”?
· In your opinion, how has the field of psychology changed since Dr. Sue was in graduate school, with regard to multicultural psychology?
Key Terms and Concepts
Cultural Competence
Emotional roadblocks
Culture-bound
Prejudice
Bias
Marginalized groups
Self-reflection
Suggested In-Class/Out-of-Class Activity
Ask students to write a 10–20-page autobiography answering the following questions:
· What led me to become a counselor?
· What were my first experiences with people of color (or with Whites)?
· What does it mean to be to be a racial/cultural being?
· What did I learn from my family about cultural diversity and differences?
· What are my stereotypes and biases about individuals from other groups?
Ask students to break into small groups (up to five members) and discuss their personal reactions to both writing their own narrative and reading those in the chapter. Encourage students to examine their emotional reactions through questions such as, “How does it feel to talk about the biases you hold toward members of other racial/ethnic groups?”
Essay Questions
· Define cultural competence and discuss the role that self-awareness plays in this process, using the narratives of Drs. Kiselica, Clark, and Sue as examples.
· What were Dr. Kiselica’s emotional roadblocks, and how do they differ from Dr. Clark’s? Why might this be?
· What influenced Derald Sue to go into multicultural psychology?
· What were common themes in the narratives of Drs. Clark and Sue?
· Compare and contrast the journeys of Drs. Kiselica, Clark, and Sue, focusing on challenges they faced and discussing how and why their challenges may have been different and/or similar.
Additional Readings
Steele, C. M. (2010). Whistling Vivaldi: And other clues to how stereotypes affect us. New York, NY: Norton.
Salaita, S. (2006). Anti-Arab racism in the USA: Where it comes from and what it means for politics. London, UK: Pluto Press.