Cultural Diversity: Multicultural Competency In A Therapeutic Relationship

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Cultural Diversity

Lorieann Matonti

Dr. James P. Maurino, M.S.W., Ph.D. Multicultural competency awareness within helping professionals has been a problematic issue over the years. Some allege that there is no difference between a good counselor and a culturally competent one. But others have debated that there is, henceforth, creating turmoil on the importance of a culturally competent counselor and how this might bear upon the client. I feel the importance of multicultural competency is vital in the relationship between the helping professionals and the therapeutic relationship (Callanan, Corey, & Schneider, 2007). Thusly, the skills of practice counseling calls for cultural competency of all helping professionals.
Importance of Multicultural Competency
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Its importance underlines the tradition of helping professional’s objectivity to their clients since it underpins them to insure they offer the best services to them. Interpreting the meaning of prejudice is key in this situation. Generally it refers to the tendency of a person to consider the merits of alternative viewpoints, thus holding a partial perspective to the situation. This could hint, therefore, that bias in the helping professional is bound to create a negative impact on a multicultural client. No, this isn't necessarily true. Just above it is clear that counseling is in-sync with cultural competency. Bias, although present when dealing with multicultural clients, in this point of sight, gives the helping professional the ability to get hold of the situation and determine the way forward (Vacc & Loesch, Professional Orientation to Counseling,