strengths and limitations of the AMCD Multicultural Counseling Competencies

Post by Day 3

A brief description of the strengths and limitations of the AMCD Multicultural Counseling Competencies.

Two recommendations you might make to enhance the current guidelines.

A Brief explanation of how these recommendations can assist counselors in working with culturally diverse clients.

Main Discussion: Ashley Shackelford: Cultural Competency Guidelines

Strengths of the AMCD Multicultural Counseling Competencies

The Association for Multicultural Counseling and Development (AMCD) has created a document on Multicultural Counseling Competencies, this document is recurrently reviewed to ensure counselors are engaging in culturally competent and ethical counseling practices. This document has both strengths and also limitations to what counselors can do. The strength that I noticed is under section C: Skills. They provide what skills can be used in order to increate a counselors cultural competency which include, education, consultative, and training experiences in order to improve a counselors understanding and effectiveness in working with individuals different them. Another strength is a counselors awareness of client’s worldview. I think this most importantly, we all view and approach the world differently from one another. Our attitudes and beliefs system help shape that view The AMCD document show why our willingness to contrast our own beliefs in a nonjudgmental way is important.

Limitations and Recommendations to Enhance Current Guidelines

Though this document has many strength, limitations are also visible, in the second section: Counselor Awareness of Client’s Worldview the documents makes a notion that a counselor possess specific knowledge and information about life experiences, culture heritage and historical back group. This idea that a counselor should have a advance knowledge of so many different cultures is difficult. I think as a recommendation counselors need to be willing to learn about clients different life experience and so fourth. I so believe the document would be more rewarding with specific examples of some attitudes and beliefs, knowledge and skills on the different sections. This will give concert examples of how each section is used in real life situations.

References

AMCD multicultural counseling competences. (1996). Retrieved from http://www.counseling.org/Resources/Competencies/Multcultural_Competencies.pdf 

Sue, D. W., & Sue, D. (2013). Counseling the culturally diverse: Theory and practice (6th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.