Culturally Alert Counseling Analysis

Introduction The practice of culturally alert counseling is one that is required in today’s diverse society. There are many people within special populations that will seek counseling in order to cope and treat the affects that drugs, alcohol and other addictive behaviors have had on their lives. These special populations come to counseling with particular cultural backgrounds that the counselor must be aware of in terms of cultural attitudes and specific knowledge of cultures. People that seek therapeutic counseling come from all different cultures, with many different perspectives, views, values, and cultural practices. Thus, it is critical that a counselor be knowledgeable in the complexities of a client’s cultural beliefs system. This …show more content…
Specific skills are demonstrated in the video, Key Practices in Culturally Alert Counseling, hosted by Garrett McAuliffe. There are three themes that pervade the practice of culturally alert counseling and these are accessibility, assessment, and intervention (McAuliffe, 2008). These existing methods utilized in counseling have been adapted to help the client as a cultural being, as with any practice of counseling paying attention to the client as an individual is critical to successful …show more content…
Alan Leshner (1997) stated in his article Addiction is a Brain Disease, “with scientific advances over the past decade is that drug addiction is a brain disease that develops over time as a result of the initially voluntary behavior of using drugs. The consequence is virtually uncontrollable compulsive drug craving, seeking, and use that interferes with, if not destroys, an individual's functioning in the family and in society”. In the text, Essentials of Chemical Dependency, addiction is defined as “a condition where there are perceivable signs or indications that the ingestion of a psychoactive or mood-altering chemical is causing the individual continuous life problems, yet this individual continues to use psychoactive chemicals” (Lawson et al, 2001). These definitions can also be applied to non-chemical addictions such as gambling or sex addictions, in which the person continues the behavior even in the face of serious life

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