Competent Counseling

Paper Summary:

The paper reviews the treatment literature for Hispanic-Americans and African-American patients through consideration of the cultural and ethnic variables. The paper explains that these are critical aspects in the consideration of matching a client to program services. The paper also identifies those aspects of the culture that should be incorporated into more standard treatment programs. Based on the review of literature, a set of best practice guidelines and a set of counselor competencies are developed that support the integration of cultural variables into treatment services.

Outline:
Objective
Introduction
Review of the Literature
Characteristics of the Culturally Skilled Counselor
Counseling: The African American Individual
Counseling: The Hispanic Individual
Best Practice Guidelines and Counselor Competences

From the Paper:

"The counseling professional takes certain attitudes, beliefs, and pre-conceptions with them into the therapy session that may or may not be conducive to the proper and effective treatment of their clients. Specifically certain preconceived notions based on race, ethnicity, or culture may serve to be negative in their effect and even harmful to the well-being of the client being counseled. It is critically important that these issues be addressed during the education and training of the professional counselor in order to prepare the counselor for effectively assessing and counseling their clients in their professional practice.
Existent as well are the factors associated with differences that exist between the races, and specifically in this work the focus will be the African-American and Hispanic race. The cultural differences existent between these two races are pronounced and must be considered separately instead of giving consideration only to cultures other than the predominant White culture, each of these races must be accorded separate consideration by the professional counselor in order for therapy to be effective."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Bass, B. A., Acosta, F. S., & Evans, L. A. (1982). "The Black patient." In F. S. Acosta, J. Yamamoto, & L. A. Evans (Eds.), Effective psychotherapy for low-income and minority patients, pp.83-108. New York: Plenum Press.
• Brodsky, A.M. (1982). Sex, race, and class issues in psychotherapy research. In J.H. Harvey and M.M. Parks (Eds.), Psychotherapy research and behavior change., (Vol. 1), (pp. 127-150). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
• Carillo, C. (1982). "Changing norms of Hispanic families." In E. E. Jones & S. J. Korchin (Eds.), Minority mental health, pp. 250-266. New York: Praeger.
• Castro, F. G. & Alarcon, E.H. (2002). Integrating cultural variables into drug abuse prevention and treatment with racial/ethnic minorities. Journal of Drug Issues, 32, 783-811.
• Castro, F. G. & Alarcon, E.H. (2002). Integrating cultural variables into drug abuse prevention and treatment with racial/ethnic minorities. Journal of Drug Issues, 32, 783-811.

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