Multicultural Counseling

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that as a multicultural society, the United States is composed of many micro societies, which do not necessarily blend into a single macro society; therefore counselors working with minority cultures must understand each minority society and challenge themselves to be creative and dynamic in providing sensitive and effective counseling to these individuals. The author points out that multicultural counseling should encompass personalization as well as group identification to serve the population with well rounded and effective counseling. The paper relates that in addition to the typical ethnic categories such as African-American, American Indian or Haitians, other minority groups and cultures include sexual minorities, women, the elderly and the disabled.

From the Paper:

"Like African-Americans, American Indians and Alaskan Natives suffered injudicious and atrocities at the hands of White Imperial Europeans. In the writings of Matthiessen (1984), the author weaves a tragic story of many American Indians who not only lost land but also gaming grounds and spiritual traditions associated with certain locations or animals. Yet through it all, Matthiessen (1984) captures the sadness the American Indian has for the white man who is half-blind and could gain much so much from all traditional peoples. In an example of the disregard for Indian culture, the US government moved Navajo Indians into a region revered by the Hopi Indian. The Navajo, having no connection to the Black Mesa region and pressured to stem statistics of infant mortality and poverty of their people, began mining the area to create jobs and income. The side effects of this mining included deep changes in these Indians' regret for the destruction of the land and a new unattractive interest in money."

More papers on Multicultural Counseling:

• Analytical Essay # 130561 : "Multicultural Counseling"
• Essay # 8615 : "Approaches to Multicultural Counseling"
• Analytical Essay # 113462 : "Multicultural Counseling"

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