1. Multicultural Counseling Portfolio
Caroline Kain
EDCEP 951
Kansas State University

2. Statement of Purpose
The purpose of this portfolio is to showcase my knowledge and understanding on multicultural counseling, as well as my skills and strategies in providing academic, physiological/emotional, and social support for students and families that come from diverse populations so their specific needs are being met in respect to their ethnicity/cultural beliefs, values, and background, as well as their gender and sexual orientation.

3. My Cultural Background
My mother’s cultural background is made up from primarily Croatian ancestry, which is located in southeastern Europe and also a small portion of German ancestry. My father’s cultural background is primary Irish as well as a small portion of German too. My great grandparents were the ones that immigrated over to the U.S, so my upbringing was primary your typical traditional American lifestyle, but we did however continue on with a few traditions from those cultures.

4. My Cultural Experiences
My extended family, to celebrate our heritage, on holidays we will incorporate Croatian traditions into our gatherings. In addition, each year during the summer in Kansas City, which is where I am from, there is a Croatian/Slavic festival, which we all attend. I love going each year because I get to learn and expand my knowledge on my family’s heritage.
With my both my Croatian and Irish background, the primary religion for these countries is Catholicism. My immediate and extended family are all catholic, and that has been an important practice, belief, and value in my life. For my father’s side, because of our Irish background, at each catholic wedding we attend for a family member, it is tradition to have someone play the bagpipes before the ceremony.

5. My Experiences & Worldviews
I was raised and had a typical American lifestyle. Here in America, we are an individualistic society, which puts places emphasis on the importance establishing independence. Croatia is a collectivistic society, which is the belief that part of your identity resides in the family, group, or collective society. The value of family is ranked high in their beliefs. Ireland is an individualistic society as well, but family loyalty is a high value of theirs too. Because of my American background, as well as my extended family’s heritage, both have influenced my philosophy and understanding of my collectivism and individualism beliefs. Establishing independence is crucial skill and understanding to have, and with my upbringing, even though I was raised in a traditional American household, the value of family and being apart of a “group” was important to us. I am glad I was able to experience both perspectives through out my childhood. I believe that it has helped me understand and communicate with other individuals better and more effectively, whether they come from a collectivist or individualist society.

6. My Experiences & Worldviews
I unfortunately have not had the opportunity to travel outside of the country much to experience other cultures first hand. But on another note, because of my American background, my experiences, and beliefs that have been establish in my life through my European heritage, as well as the educational opportunities I have received, my definition worldview is…
Every single person on this earth is an unique individual. With our cultural background, it influences our beliefs, behaviors, and choices in how we want to live our life. Every single person on this earth sees the world from their own personal “lens”. I believe that establishing a sense of independence is extremely important, but also the value of loyalty and being apart of a group is important as well. Those interpersonal relationships and social support can bring so much joy. But because of everything I have experienced in my life and what I have learned during my time in school, being open-minded, patient, and honest is what will get you far in life.

7. Multicultural Counseling
Multicultural Counseling is defined as:
“ A helping role and process that use modalities and defines goals consistent with the life experiences and cultural values of diverse clients”.
-Sue & Sue (2016)
My perspective on Multicultural Counseling is….
Is having the ability and skills to provide support and guidance to diverse populations that are different than my own, being knowledgeable about their cultural background, so I can alter and implement specific techniques and approaches to meet their individual needs.
(Sue & Sue, 2016)

8. Worldviews
“Worldviews are composed of people’s attitudes, values, and beliefs that affect how people think, define events, make decisions, and behave” (Sue & Sue, 2016).
Every single person on this earth sees the world from their own personal “lens”. Each and every experience we have as human beings are unique. Even if our beliefs and perspectives might be similar to those individuals we may come across with during our lifespan, that does not make their worldview any less important and unique. They might be similar, but those experiences will never be exactly the same. It is our differences in worldviews and our epigentics that separates us and make us different and special in our own way.

9. Multicultural Counseling Competencies
Three Domains of Multicultural Counseling Competencies
Awareness: an understanding of one’s own cultural conditional and how this condition affects the personal beliefs, values, and attitudes of a culturally diverse population.
Knowledge: understanding and knowledge of the worldviews of culturally diverse individuals and groups
‘Multicultural’ Skills: an ability to determine and use culturally appropriate interventions strategies when working with different groups in our society.
(Sue & Sue, 2016)

10. Multicultural Counseling Competency #1:
Awareness

11. Awareness
Understanding the differing worldviews of the cultural diverse students that we may work with is tantamount to effective multicultural counseling (Sue & Sue, 2016). As a counselor, the basic building block to becoming a culturally competent helping professional is examining and confronting your own worldviews. You need to explore and become aware of…
Your assumptions on human behavior
Your lack of knowledge and misinformation on specific populations
Your personal biases and prejudices that you may have.
Understanding these personal biases and beliefs as well as my own reactions to issues of diversity, multiculturalism, oppression, race, gender, and sexually orientation are what has made me understand my own “self” and identity but it has provided me with the right skills that I will use when working with students from a different cultural background.
(Sue & Sue, 2016)

12. Resistance to Multicultural Training (Sue & Sue, 2016)
Through this process of becoming culturally competent, research claims that resistance in this training process is manifested in three forms: Cognitive resistance, Emotional resistance, and Behavioral resistance. Being able to recognize and understand the hidden meanings of resistance is the first step and goal for multicultural training.
To be an effective professional and counselor through a multicultural lens, you need to confront your own fears, and power through those negative and challenging emotions you may experience when you are beginning to explore what it means to be a racial/cultural being, reach a level of clearer understanding of your personal insights, and develop multicultural skills and behaviors in all facets of your life.
Cognitive: Denial. (e.g. they may think racism is a thing of the past)
Emotional: Blocks one’s ability to acknowledge, understand, and make meaning out of the strong and difficult feelings that are associated with multicultural topics.
Behavioral: Because of these powerful emotions one may be experiencing, they may have feelings of hopelessness and helplessness. The level to which these emotions might be at, they contribute to an individual’s abilities in taking action, and in this case, not taking action, if these emotions are high.
Information from (Sue & Sue, 2016)

13. Awareness
Not only have I gained awareness on my “self”, I am culturally aware of the differences in cultures and worldviews individuals may have. I now am able to take a situation, and look at it through a multicultural lens. Having these skills and being able to acknowledge how others view the world will help me tremendously in providing my students and their families of all different ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations, and ages with the most effective counseling and support possible.
“Without awareness, difference are equated with deviancy and the client is pathologized” (p. 149)

14. Importance of “Awareness” in School Setting
Having a cultural self awareness as a school counselor, it will provide me with the opportunities to be open and honest with all students I come in contact with. It it provides me now with a clear understanding of my own identity as well as has given me the opportunity to understand what personal biases and believes that I have had toward specific minority groups. So overall, I I am aware of what it means to be a racial/cultural human being. Along with self-awareness, I will be able to implement techniques and strategies to specific populations that I may work with them will for fill their own individual academic, personal, emotional, and social needs in regards to their cultural background. 

15. Multicultural Counseling Competency #2
Knowledge

16. Sociocultural Groups
As I begin my career in school counseling, I know I will have the opportunity to work with students that come from a variety of different cultural backgrounds. In order for me to be an effective school counselor and provide support and guidance that meets the every individuals students needs, being knowledgeable over different sociocultural groups is critical. In regards to my community, besides be predominately white, for this portfolio I will discuss the culture-specific elements of the African American and the Hispanic populations, since they are next in line in the population number.

17. African Americans
Spirituality and Religion: these play a very important role in African American families. Over 75% of people rely on their religion and spiritual communities for mental health support because they act as a protective factor in terms of experiencing stress.
Family Structure: Most African American family structures are matriarchal. However, the family structure for African Americans families and households vary. Kinship bonds with extended family and friends also very important for this population. There are many possibilities that a student might be living with extended or nontraditional family arrangements. These families install self-esteem in their children by the role of flexibility. They value behaviors such as assertiveness, men are more accepting of female work roles, and they are more willing to share the responsibility of traditional tasks women usually take on. Extended family networks are important to them and it provides them with additional emotional and economic support. Women usually demonstrate a “Strong Black Woman” racial identity. Self-reliance, independence, and being able to hand difficult challenges all while taking care of the family is important to them (Sue & Sue, 2016).
As a school counselor, it will be important in gaining information on who the student may be living with so I am aware of the hierarchy of their family structure. In addition, I will be aware of how family relationships, kinship, and spirituality all are useful for this culture in providing support.

18. African Americans
When working with African American students it will be important to remember that most of them have faced racism, and the possibly of that being a factor into the presenting problem should be acknowledged.
75% of people had no preference on the race of the counselor when discussing issues related to depression, anxiety, loneliness, anger, drug/alcohol issues and meeting new people.
50% said they preferred a Black counselor that issues were being discussed regarding personal relationships and racial problems
The most important counselor characteristic for African Americans is to be culturally sensitive. If the counselor is able to show the client that they acknowledge the their race/culture might be a contributing factor into the current problem instead of ignore it (colorblindness), then those individuals will see you are more competent and reliable.
(Sue & Sue, 2016)

19. Hispanic Americans/Latinas/os
Latinas/os are the largest minority group in the U.S.. Because they make up 17.1% of the population in American (Sue & Sue, 2016), understanding there culture I believe is very important for all school counselors to be knowledgeable about.
Within this culture, establishing and maintaining their close interpersonal relationships is an important value of theirs. Family unity, loyalty, respect, and tradition which is known as the Familismo is important as well. This term "refers not only to family cohesiveness and interdependence but also to loyalty and placing the needs of close family and friends before personal needs" (p. 528) When working with students that are from this culture, I will be aware that there is a traditional hierarchal family structure and that parents, older adults in the American family, and males are typically the primary authority figure.
(Sue & Sue, 2016)

20. Hispanic Americans/Latinas/os
Because school counselors focus on academic support as well, understanding that this population of students do not typically do well in the public school system and they face educational difficulties (Sue & Sue, 2016) is critical.  “ Approximately 41% of adults do not have a regular high school diploma” (p 526).
These academic challenges maybe due to their English proficiencies. "Spanish is the primary language spoken in over half of the households" (p. 533). 
When working students that are Hispanic-American, I will be aware of the educational characteristics and difficulties that they may be dealing with as well as the language barriers that may be involved. When I am faced with a situation involving language barriers with the student and especially the parents, I plan use a translator and I will educate myself on the basics of their language. I do believe that most importantly I will be aware of their communication styles and nonverbal communication such as the areas of paralanguages, proxemics, kinesics, and high-low context communication.
 (Sue & Sue, 2016)

21. Hispanic Americans/ Latinas/os
Along with linguistic issues, school counselors should also be aware and prepare to help the population of Hispanic Americans/ Latinas/os with the difficulties they may be facing in regards to racism and discrimination, acculturation conflicts, mental illness and stigma.
(Sue & Sue, 2016)

22. Importance of “Knowledge” in Schools
Having the knowledge on different cultures has expanded my understanding of the world and the individuals that are all living in it. Not only have I learned about these cultural differences, but I now in more knowledgeable on my own personal racial identity. As I mentioned before, the traditional counseling approaches and theories were established from my white western European perspective. As a school counselor, these students that come to you for support guidance are vulnerable. They want someone to listen, and they want to feel accepted. For effective counseling to take place, a trusting therapeutic relationship needs to be set. If you are unable to move past the biases and certain beliefs you may have, they will pick up on that. If you were able to show them that you can understand their perspective, and that you respect their values and beliefs, the level of trust you will have will increase drastically as well as your credibility. 

23. Meaning & Elements of White Privilege
"White privilege is defined as the unearned advantages and privileges of that occur to people of white European descent" (p. 762). Individuals that are white are given advantages in areas such as job in employment opportunities as well as academics. Sue & Sue (2016) stated that research suggests that it is nearly impossible for anyone to avoid inheriting the racial biases, prejudices, misinformation, deficit portrayals, and stereotypes of their forebears. Being a white person in our society means continuous exposure to ethnocentric monoculturalism (Sue & Sue, 2016). Many white individuals will believe that they do not have to become aware and knowledgeable about the variety of cultures that are in our society.

24. Meaning & Elements of White Privilege
I am a white American. I have been exposed to racial biases, stereotypes, etc. I now have other opportunity to take this course on multicultural counseling as well as a few courses during my undergrad where I was pushed to explore my white racial identity and now I have been able to free myself from the cultural conditioning of my past. I have now developed an anti- racist white identity. In my responsibilities as a school counselor I will educate my students on how to be culturally competent. I will teach them on importance of learning about diverse cultures, the unique characteristics which each minority group has, how to embrace their cultural differences, how to participate in race talk in an effective manner as well as teach white students on how to except their own whiteness in non- defensive and non-racist way. 

25. Multicultural Counseling Competency #3
Multicultural Skills

26. Importance of “Multicultural Skills”
Because of my self awareness and knowledge I have the abilities and skills in providing my students and their families with the appropriate intervention and prevention techniques that are formed around their own unique individual culture. I am able to communicate effectively in ways that they will understand. I have established skills and where I am able to understand and pay close attention to their nonverbal communication at behaviors. My multicultural counseling competence has reached a great level, and I know with time and more experience it will only improve. 

27. Multicultural Skills & Ethics
Each and every student that you work with during your counseling profession all have a right to be treated with respect and dignity. They have the right to have access to a comprehensive school counseling program the advocates born and firms all students from diverse populations such as ethnic/racial identity, nationality, SES status, sexual orientation, gender, language, family time, abilities/disabilities, etc (ASCS, 2016). As a school counselor, I will have the ethical responsibility to provide all students with support no matter what their differences are. My responsibilities will be to modify changes in the counseling approaches and interventions that are necessary to meet the clients goals and needs. I will have the responsibility to implement changes that correlate to the students individual values, beliefs, Life experiences that will accurate in providing positive outcomes for the students overall well-being. (ASCA, 2016)

28. Traditional Forms of Counseling
The issue with traditional counseling, therapy, and mental health practices they have been established from a monocultural and ethnocentric perspective. They exclude all other ethnic/culture groups. Sue & Sue (2016) mention that psychological research, which forms the knowledge base of our profession, focuses primarily on Americans who constitute only 5% of the world’s population. The knowledge of human behavior neglects and disregards the remaining 95% of the world’s population. So traditional counseling and therapeutic techniques and approaches inadequately represent the rest of humanity (Sue & Sue, Based off that percentage, it is clear that counselors and mental health professionals should focus on establishing the skills that are inclusive and offer support to all minority groups.
**there is a difference between counseling competence and multicultural counseling competence**

29. Often enough, individuals and counselors will avoid acknowledging one’s cultural background and race. To be an effective counselor, you need to understand your client’s identity. Culture, race, sexual orientation, and gender are major components of one’s identity.
If you as a counselor does not participate in the process of self-awareness, they avoid acknowledging other’s racial (colorblind) and cultural background, and they think “there is only one race, the human race”, they will miss how these components of one’s identity affects their perception of reality, values, and beliefs.

30. The Harm of Cultural Incompetence
Being culturally incompetent can largely affect our marginalized students and/or families. The traditional forms of counseling and psychotherapy are culture bound. These approaches and techniques have been established from a White Western-European, middle class perspective. They do not take into consideration other cultures/ethnic groups values, beliefs, and perspectives.
When a professional counselor is only trained on traditional approaches of therapy, and they have not been educated on multicultural counseling, they are described to be:
Insensitive to their clients needs. They do not show that they accept, respect, and understand the differences, they come off arrogant, and they have little awareness of their biases and prejudices.
Professionals who counsel people of color lack understanding and knowledge about their ethnic values and how their mental health is being affective by their continuous interactions with a racist society. Clients of color, women, and LGBTQ individuals complain that they are intimidated, abused, and harassed by the non minority professional.
This ethnocentric bias places discriminatory practices in these counseling systems and the are deeply embedded in the ways their system is organized and delivered to these diverse groups. This results in in biases diagnoses and treatment.
Mental health professional continue to be trained in programs that ignore and do not cover issues of gender, race, and sexual orientation, they disregard them as deficiencies and portray them in stereotypical ways.
(Sue & Sue, 2016)

31. For Effective Counseling
Listen intently to your students/families stories that come from disempowered groups in society.
Don’t allow your emotional reactions negate their voices because you will become defensive.
Even though you do not want to be racist and prejudice towards others, remind yourself and remember because of cultural conditioning, these certain biases and perspectives have been established. No one is free from inheriting biases that their society might have. But you have the ability to improve these thoughts!
Don’t be afraid to explore yourself as a racial and cultural being. It may be challenging, upsetting, and overwhelming, but to be a strong and effective counselor you need to explore these perspectives.
If you do not confront these unpleasant social realities and do not take responsibility in changing these behaviors you will not be able to grow and improve in counseling profession.
(Sue & Sue, 216)

32. Goals to becoming more Culturally Competent
My learning plan for continued growth will be to continue on reading and educating myself on more material related to multicultural counseling. I plan to attend workshops and training programs that teach helping professionals how to support their students/clients from my multicultural perspective, instead of implementing interventions and strategies that have been established from a traditional White Western European perspective. I plan to continue on to the process of self-awareness and explore those personal biases as often as possible. It is important to remember that the process of becoming culturally competent takes time it takes continuous effort throughout your professional career and as well your lifespan. I know I still have a lot of progress to make, but I know that with time and experience as well as being exposed to situations where I will be working with individuals of minority groups, my abilities in being culturally competent will improve and grow. 

33. Resources
Erford, B. T. (2018).Orientation to the counseling profession: advocacy, ethics, and essential professional foundations. NY NY: Pearson.
Sue, D. W. & Sue, D. (2016). Counseling the culturally diverse: Theory and Practice (7th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley 
The ASCA Ethical Standards for School Counselors (2016). The American School Counselor Association. Retrieved From: EthicalStandards2016.pdf