1. Working with Students with Diverse Backgrounds

2. Icebreaker
You will need your copy of “Getting Soft in the Burbs.” Discuss:
How would you as a school counselor or school psychologist raise your level of understanding and awareness about students in poverty?
What were some suggestions or ideas given in this case that you agree with? How would you apply them in a case like Jimmy’s if he was your student client?
How would you educate your staff or fellow counselors about students in poverty?

3. Agenda Discussion Resiliency Prevention programs
Multicultural competency
Broaching
Systems & Advocacy

4. Today Objectives Questions
To define resilience and list characteristics of resilience in youth
To apply the different steps of prevention programs in community and schools to developing programs for diverse youth.
To brainstorm methods of raising self-awareness and multicultural competency.
What do we know about resilience?
How do prevention programs foster resilience in schools and communities?
How do school counselors promote multicultural competency in themselves and in their schools?
How do school counselors work together with other stakeholders to promote healthy and safe schools for diverse youth?

5. Activity One: Systems Issues
Each school team has an issue that is both individual and systemic – but has no bearing on the PBL case.
Read the case and discuss.
What do you know? Need to know?
How do your readings inform this?
Your big goal is to think about this issue as a system issue- what will you do given what you know?
You will not have time to completely sketch out your ideas, but you will at the end of class.

6. What we know about resilience
“A dynamic developmental process of health human development growing out of nurturing relationships that support social, academic and vocational competence and the self- righting capacity to spring back from exposure to adversity and other environmental stressors.”
“Power of the ordinary”
Second chances

7. What we know about resilience
All youth have the potential for healthy development and successful learning
Resilience is a self-righting capacity fostered transactionally in the presence of certain environmental variables.
Research extends into different professions (education, counseling, psychology, medicine etc.)
Includes vital relationships – with counselors it means the rapport, common factors/Rogerian core
To help students be and maintain resilience it may mean that helping professionals need professional development or additional training

8. Resilience Resilience includes:
Social competence
Problem-solving skills
Autonomy
Sense of purpose and future
Caring relationships
High expectations
Opportunities to participate and contribute
Positive, successful school climates foster these.
Look familiar?

9. Resilience
What holds us back from being good helpers, advocates and change agents?
Power & privilege
Fear of discussing uncomfortable topics
Need for consistent self-awareness
Language that creates a reality of “at-risk”/labeling
Judgments, stereotypes and prejudice
Social distancing
Social comparison
Assumptions – this “type” of student can only do “this”

10. Questions to consider
What do we believe to be true about human nature and empowerment?
What do we believe about human and systems change?
What would it look like if a student realizes her capacity for resilience?
How does resilience look like between adults and children?
What would it mean or look like for the school and community?
What “taps” resilience?
Under what conditions does resilience flourish?

11. Example of a Program that Promotes Resilience
Edible School Yard

12. Prevention Programs 1. Asses the needs of your school
Climate surveys
Critical Elements Data – GPA, test scores, attendance rates, referrals
Focus groups
State and district data
Meet with administrators, officials and businesses.
Use the advisory board
2. Identify specifically who would need an intervention program and why – is it targeted to a population or group of students? Why?
What are the important factors that may create circumstances that would place students “at-risk” for negative outcomes?
What behaviors are present that need to be reduced or increased?

13. Prevention Programs 3. What programs are already out there that work?
What the program is targeting? What is it designed to decrease?
How is it designed to increase pro-social or coping skills instead?
Does the program have evidence that it works? Outcome research?
It is transferable to your school’s context?
How does it include parents and community?
What resources would be needed to put the program in place?

14. Prevention Programs 4. Work with administrators
Is there a rationale for this program?
Who will it help? How will we know?
How will this affect the school culture?
What involved? Time, money, human resource
5. Identify any policy or procedures that may need to be considered.
School policy
Ethical guidelines
6.Create at team to put the program in place
Include parents, community and school board members
Members of mental health profession
Community partners
Advisory board

15. Prevention Programs 7. Plan for every contingency and be flexible.
What will we do if stakeholders react negatively?
How do we publicize what we do?
Are we sure we are meeting the needs or adapting the program for all students?
Identify supports and resources
8. Plan staff development
9. Ensure a plan for evaluation

16. Linking Prevention programs:
Are designed to increase resilience
are systemic in nature and include students, staff and parents.
need to be multicultural and developmentally appropriate.
School counselors and school psychologist have an ethical mandate to be multicultural competent, and ready to work with ALL students.
Self-awareness
Knowledge of student groups who may not be thriving or are unsafe
Skill to meet the needs of those students individually and systemically
Student Need
Therapeutic Alliance

17. Multicultural Competency
Why should a counselor be multiculturally competent?
What does that mean and how does a counselor demonstrate it?
What does this mean for school counselors’ role as “advocate”?

18. Rationale for Multicultural Competency
Changing student demographics
Equity in educational access and services
Identification of barriers to student success
Provision of educational support systems
Awareness and skill to address issues of racism, prejudice and discrimination both in school and in the world
Homogeneity of counseling force
Counseling theories rooted in mainstream White, middle class values
Ethical responsibility –ACA/ASCA
CACREP competencies
Helping professional’s role as advocate

19. All Students Need and Should Have
A quality education in a school that is safe and free from prejudice,
To attend integrated and diverse classrooms that support different learning styles and abilities,
with developmentally appropriate and culturally supportive curriculum and teaching strategies.

20. What Defines Diversity?
Race
Ethnicity
Culture
Language
Sexual orientation
Socioeconomic status
Family configuration
Transience
Religion
Physical, emotional, and learning disabilities

21. School Counselors can.. establish strong links with the community
connect students and their families with services not available at school
ensure that individual needs are respected and supported
become culturally and linguistically knowledgeable about their school's population
help teachers to design classroom activities that strengthen students' academic, social, personal, and career skills
be aware of their own level of awareness of multicultural issues – the good, the bad and the ugly

22. Counseling Challenges
Communication
Misunderstanding of culture / impact
Mistaken assumptions & bias
Difference in values
Stereotyping
“Inability to understand the worldview of the client.”

23. Legal & Ethical Equal Access Act Safe Schools Law
1984
GSAs
Safe Schools Law
Iowa Civil Rights Code
CACREP Competency Areas
ACA Code of Ethics
ASCA Code of Ethics
ACA Advocacy Competencies
NASP Commitment to Cultural Competency and Professional Standards

24. When do youth know they are gay?
First awareness of same sex attraction
10 years
First self-label
15 years
Disclosure to parents
17 years
First serious relationship

25. School Climate: Victimization
Gay, lesbian, and bisexual youth report verbal abuse in school from:
Other students: 69%
Teachers: 27%
Counselors: %
Source: Centers for Disease Control Questionnaire. Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System. Representative sample of 4,000 Massachusetts high school students. Published in Pediatrics, 1998

26. School Climate
Seven out of ten cases of “anti-gay” harassment is directed at straight students, perceived to be LGBT. --Source: Seattle Teen Health Survey, 1999
74.8% reported that faculty or staff never intervened or intervened only some of the time when present when homophobic remarks were made.
7% of students reported hearing staff make homophobic remarks
19% of students reported hearing staff make negative remarks on gender expression
Source: Iowa Pride Network School Climate Survey, 2005

27. Are LGBT youth victimized more than their straight peers?
Experiences at school:
Gay, Lesbian, or Bisexual
Not Gay, Lesbian, or Bisexual
Don’t Feel Safe
61%
17%
Physical Assault
18% 5%
Threats
59%
Nate Monson, Executive Director
Iowa Safe Schools
Office;
Source: Combined 2002 Iowa Youth Survey & 2005 Iowa Pride Network School
Climate Survey

28. Consequences of Harassment
Gay, Lesbian, or Bisexual
Not Gay, Lesbian, or Bisexual
Missed school because of fear
25% 5%
Suicide attempt
35%
10%
Recent Alcohol use
89%
53%
Ever used drugs
68%
47%
Nate Monson, Executive Director
Iowa Safe Schools
Office;

29. Consequences of Harassment
Students that experience more frequent verbal harassment are four times as likely to not continue their education after high school
Source: Iowa Pride Network School Climate Survey

30. Adult to LGBT Youth Relationships
If an adult is viewed as LGBT safe to an LGBT youth, even if that youth doesn’t talk to him/her, it makes the biggest difference to this youth.
Stop anyone from saying “that’s so gay”
Show visual support – Safe Space stickers – available at
Be a supportive ally to LGBT individuals – especially students

31. Addressing the System Whole-school prevention Targeted prevention
Climate change
Communicate openness to supportive dialogue
Print and video resources
Use of correct terminology
Targeted prevention
Academic achievement
Professional development
Gay-straight alliances
Partnerships with community agencies

32. Addressing the System Intensive intervention Mental health resources
Awareness of risk and resilience factors for individual students
Individual and group counseling
Psych education
Unconditional positive regard

33. What is Broaching?
“Broaching represents an invitation wherein the counselor helps the client examine the extent to which sociopolitical factors such as race and ethnicity influence the client’s counseling concerns.”
Broaching is an invitation.
Broaching creates an opportunity for discussion.
Broaching is a continuum of behaviors, attitudes and awareness.
(Day-Vines, Craigen, Dotson-Blake, Douglass, Grothaus, Holman & Wood, 2004)

34. Why Broaching? The research suggests that:
Counselors who have addressed race in counseling overwhelmingly perceived these conversations to have positive impacts on therapy.
Failure to address issues of race and ethnicity can perpetuate cultural bias by imposing the dominant culture on minority clients.
Acknowledgement of cultural factors in the counseling session enhances counselor credibility, client satisfaction, the depth of disclosure by clients, and willingness to return for follow-up sessions.
a lack of multicultural counseling competence may be a significant contributing factor to the rate of client termination after the initial counseling session.
(Granello & Wheaton, 1998 Sue & Sundberg, 1996; Knox, et.al, 2003; Atkinson, Casas, & Abreu, 1992; Gim, Atkinson, & Kim, 1991; Pomales, Claiborn, & Lafromboise, 1986).

35. Elements Conducive to Broaching
Environment of emotional safety
Consistent attitude of openness
Genuine commitment by the counselor
Acknowledgement that race may not affect every presenting problem
Recognition of importance of the client-counselor relationship
Use of counseling environment as a container
The counselor-client encounter is a multicultural interaction.
Optimally, it should be an alliance.
Any alliance is undermined by a fundamental lack of understanding cultural assumptions
“All helping practice is based on a set of cultural assumptions” (Ivey, 1993, p. 225)

36. Broaching as a Multicultural Competence
The model includes three categories of competencies:
counselor awareness
understanding the client worldview and
developing appropriate interventions for use with these clients.
Broaching encompasses each of these competencies.
Broaching represents a continuum from avoidance of the topic to an integrated awareness of how broaching represents cultural competence.

37. Broaching and Counselor-Client Feelings of Broaching
Possible Feelings of:
Resentment
Embarrassment
Fear
Excitement
Curiosity
True Rapport
Possible Feelings of:
Unresponsiveness
Denial
Acceptance
Happiness
Anger

38. The Broaching Counselor
Must be:
fully prepared to deal with any and all personal reactions
attend to the client’s feelings, needs and concerns
react appropriately in order to encourage exploration and self-reflection by the client
Willing to:
Abdicate power and social desirability
Relinquish the need to control or be perfect
Take risks
Genuinely desire to join
Experience vulnerability
Experience trust

39. Implications for School Counselors
Increased awareness of issues of difference
Allowing students an opportunity to discuss feelings around race, ethnicity and culture
Recognizing the impact of these issues within the school climate
Dialoguing with other school personnel
Affecting change in attitudes and understanding about these issues
How would you feel as a counselor broaching?
How would your student’s feel?
Individual counseling
Student planning sessions
Group Counseling
Guidance Lessons
Faculty meetings
Working with parents
Staff Development
Extend broaching into all cultural contexts. We are humans in various systems with different identities. What would broaching look like with regard to sexual orientation? Spirituality? Disabilities?

40. Broaching Supports Elements of the National Model
Foundation
Beliefs and Philosophies
Mission
Domains
ASCA National Standards and competencies
Delivery Systems
Guidance Curriculum
Individual student planning
Advocacy
School counselors believe, support, and promote every student's goal to achieve success in school to work proactively with students to remove barriers to learning

41. School Counseling Considerations (1)
Provide inspirational role models
Be here & now
Explore value of future planning
Investigate how home & school are same/different
Recognize each family has distinct values
Talk about communication, confrontation, and problem-solving
Be open & honest
Be respectful & appreciate diversity
Be a part of the community
Show interest in the child (& their culture)
Have reasonable expectations
Know resources & mentors for your children
Involve the family

42. School Counseling Considerations (2)
Decorate with multicultural ideas in mind.
Offer a variety of props from variety of cultures.
Explore your own biases
Learn about other cultures
Explore acculturation with child/adolescent
Allow ample time for assessments
Have interpreters available
Involve families

43. Increasing Self-Awareness & Alliance
Do you know your bias in a variety of areas?
How do you believe you become culturally aware and accepting?
What makes you uncomfortable? Why? How do you react?
Cultural identification of the client
Cultural factors related to psychosocial environment & level of functioning
Cultural elements of the relationship between the client & counselor
Overall cultural reaction
REMEMBER NO CULTURE OR RACE IS A MONOLITH – there is variation everywhere!

44. Awareness Tools & Resources
Multicultural counseling awareness scale
City-wide cultural assessment tool
Cultural Competence Self-evaluation form
Safe Schools:

45. School Counseling Advocacy
Advocacy can be seen as part of the ecological model: individual student, school building/system, state and community.
ACA has it’s own set of advocacy competencies, and ASCA has it as primary component of school counselors’ roles and responsibilities.

46. Activity 2/3 Let’s return to your cases.
What more do you now know that you can use?
Continue to develop your answers for the next few minutes and then we’ll reconfigure.

47. Video Psychotherapy with GLBT Clients: The coming out process