Multiculturalism In Addiction Counseling

Desiree Stokely PAC240 Module 2 October 5, 2015

Multiculturalism is a widely-known issue in addiction counseling and has a vital role in counseling. “Culture is the combination of all the physical and behavioral aspects of a society. To study the people within a society, how they function and what they value, Culture should be regarded as the set of distinctive spiritual, material, intellectual and emotional features of a society or a social group, that it encompasses, in addition to art and literature, lifestyles, ways of living together, value systems,, traditions and beliefs.” Pg 18 Counselors have a challenging time counseling culturally diverse clients, exclusively when they are unwary of

Although one comportment or disorder might be regarded as norm in one culture, it could be regarded as abnormal in another culture, and thus making therapy less equal in altered populations. Counselors must take into justification every culture, otherwise they are unwitting and are under culture coercion. Unfortunately, individuals come with bias and pre-conceived concepts. These biases and pre-conceived concepts generally impinge on treatment and therapy, because when working with culturally diverse populaces heedless of their beliefs and values, the outcomes of therapy are ineffective. Those who are attentive in the study of multiculturalism have even defined counselors negatively in the sense of treatment by calling them impervious to the beliefs and values of their culturally distinctive clients. There are many groups who are fortunate in the American society, such as males, Caucasians, heterosexuals, and people with high socioeconomic status, however most of these individuals do not fully comprehend their privileges because they have not lived life in the shoes of those who are less

During treatment, a good practice is to corroborate the client’s feelings on their experiences, but using this practice with culturally diverse individuals can be precarious because there is a higher possibility of misunderstanding how the client truly feels. An example of this would be, hypothetically speaking, I am a heterosexual counselor in session with a client who tells me she has recently come to the conclusion that she is gay, I then reply, “Does that make you dismayed?” If the client was actually content that she came to this conclusion, I would have just made him feel like she should be dismayed while, showing that I had a negative perception on becoming a homosexual. Because I am oblivious of her culture and views of homosexuality, I have just invalidated her feelings and have most likely caused client deterioration.

A key to eluding ethical quandaries is to avoid personal biases and views in client sessions. Any personal views that are not associated with counseling goals must be circumvented, and counselors need to continue to be aware of these views and regard all forms of diversity when it conveys to clients

Competency and proficiency are important ethical values as well. Forming the necessary skills required as a counselor does not only improve the client-counselor