Lifelong Learning The counseling professions are committed to lifelong learning. Such learning is typically a part of practicing within the ethical standards of counseling professions, including social work, psychology, mental health counseling, school counseling, and marriage and family counseling (AAMFT, 2015; ACA, 2014; AMHCA, 2015; APA, 2017; ASCA, 2016; NASW, 2017). The commitment to lifelong learning within the ethical standards requires counselors to participate in activities that keep them current on issues and interventions within the field and provide clients with the most appropriate care and service. Lifelong learning in the context of cultural humility emphasizes the importance of current issues inclusive of a multicultural perspective that encompasses aspects of critical self- reflection and advocacy involving continued growth and learning. According to Fisher-Borne and colleagues (2015), “Cultural humility considers the fluidity and subjectivity of culture and challenges individuals and institutions to Assessment and Treatment Counselors need to approach every individual client with a cognizance of the possible intersecting identities within the client but without a stereotype of the client based on preconceived notions of these intersecting identities (e.g., race, ethnicity, LGBTQ status). Implementing the practice of cultural humility may flummox counselors as they approach clients in a clinical setting. There are some guidelines and frameworks that aid counselors in providing appropriate care to a diversity of clients. Hardy and McGoldrick (2008), for example, have written and spoken extensively on race in clinical settings and have suggested that for therapy to be successful, the clinician needs to “make room for unspoken structures, the cultural, racial, class, and gender- based hierarchies that are the underpinnings of our society. It goes unacknowledged that African American, Latino, Asian, and other racially oppressed people do not have the same entitlements to participate in our institutions, even in our world of family therapy” (Hardy & McGoldrick, 2008, p. 6). Simply put, therapists need to speak the unspoken. In clinical settings, therapists (White therapists in particular) need to take the lead in raising the subject of race, thus opening the door for clients to discuss salient issues around their experiences affecting their physical and mental health. The following example from Wyatt (n.d.) illuminates some critical elements of counseling with cultural humility. An interracial couple, an African American father and a White mother, come into therapy because their child was kicked out of school for fighting. The father was called into child protective services for spanking his child. When they entered the office, the father was furious; the mother was getting extremely upset, trying to calm him down. The White therapist suggested meeting with the father alone first. When he met with the father, rather than trying to silence his rage, he joined him by stating, “It sounds like you are furious with the situation that’s happened; you are tired of it.” The father could calm down at that point, as the White therapist allowed him to be angry in his presence and acknowledged that there might be a reason for his anger. The therapist then asked the father if his disciplining method had anything to do with wanting to protect his child. The
address inequalities. As a concept, it challenges active engagement in a lifelong process that individuals enter with clients, organizational structures, and within themselves” (p. 171). Cultural humility requires self-reflection, taking risks, discovering new information, and using clients and others as resources (Obiakor & Algozzine, 2016). Culturally humble learners understand that they will both make mistakes and learn from those mistakes because, as counselors, they are in a constant state of becoming. Lifelong learning allows the counselor to integrate shifting paradigms and continue reflection and reeducation regarding dominant perspectives on marginalized populations and communities (Obiakor & Algozzine, 2016). Finally, it requires that counselors separate themselves from thinking about clients from a deficit perspective and instead think of clients as fellow humans with rich intellectual, cultural, ethnic, and class backgrounds and with various strengths (Obiakor & Algozzine, 2016). father responded that he was afraid his child, “a Black kid,” was at risk of going to prison if he fought at school. The father did not want that for his child and was frightened. The therapist made the clinical session more meaningful by allowing the father to express his rage and fear. Counselors who practice cultural humility also recognize that assessment tools and treatment protocols may not be appropriate for all clients. Historically, many therapeutic strategies employed in counseling treatment were developed without empirically supported research on ethnic minorities (Sue & Sue, 2016). Acknowledging these limitations, the American Psychological Association developed a list of empirically supported treatments and practice guidelines for diverse clients (APA, 2006). However, counselors should not rely solely on manualized treatment protocols to guide their interventions. Such an approach can fail to appreciate clients’ unique experiences and the effect of different social environments. Employing a research-based therapeutic practice, counselors should adopt the system by the client’s values, experiences, and preferences while understanding the influence of the broader societal context (Jackson, 2015). Counselors can create an environment that appreciates clients’ perspectives by facilitating a respectful partnership that allows clients to take the lead in narrating their experiences and identifying personal treatment goals. A multicultural perspective in counseling began to emerge almost 30 years ago. Table 3 outlines the essential aspects of the multicultural perspective in clinical settings. The considerations outlined in Table 3 require counselors to balance many different facets of clients and their lived experiences. It is essential in treatment to adhere to these guidelines, as it sets up a counseling environment in which therapists and clients are equal while forcing counselors to consider the validity of various worldviews and the structural inequities that contribute to the problems and issues clients bring into counseling.
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Book Code: PCTX1325
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