Brain Drain - Hochschule der Bundesagentur für Arbeit

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Framework of Multicultural Counselling Competences (Sue) is based on extensive
research concerning cultural identity, intercultural communication, mental health of
minorities, as well as on counselling research. It was originally carried out for
counsellors in the United States for typical counselling interactions involving a White
(Euro-American) counsellor with a client from a different ethnic background. The
starting point is that competences can be seen as a broader framework for diversitysensitive
approach in counselling (e.g. Nelson-Jones 2002). This viewpoint is
supported also by the latest research: there seems to be a positive correlation
between clients’ ratings of Multicultural Counselling Competences and clients’ ratings
of counsellors’ general competency (Fuertes & Brobst 2002; Farga 2004).
The roots of the Multicultural Counselling Competences are in the framework of
cross-cultural counselling competencies by Sue et al. (1982). In that position paper
the authors outline three dimensions of cross-cultural counselling competences:
beliefs and attitudes, knowledge and skills. The first dimension deals with the
counsellor’s attitudes and beliefs about racial and ethnic minorities, the need to check
biases and stereotypes and develop a positive orientation towards multiculturalism.
The research has emphasised the importance of the counsellor’s awareness of his or
her own culture and of the client’s culture. To be able to place oneself in the situation
of a person from another culture, one has first to become aware of the effects of
one’s own culture and values on one’s action. The second dimension proposes that
the culturally skilled counsellor has a good knowledge and understanding of his or
her own worldview has specific knowledge of the cultural groups he or she works
with, and that he or she understands socio-political influences. The last dimension
emphasises specific intervention techniques and strategies needed in working with
minority groups. Multicultural Counselling Competencies by Sue et al. (1992; 1996)
revises the original three-dimensional framework by adding to it the following three
characteristics of a culturally competent counsellor: 1) awareness of his or her own
assumptions, values and biases, 2) understanding of the worldview of a culturally
different client as well as 3) an ability to develop appropriate intervention strategies
and techniques. Due to the fact that each of these characteristics are described as
having dimensions of beliefs and attitudes, knowledge and skills, Multicultural
Counselling Competencies define a total of nine competence areas (as shown in
Table 1).
In order to encourage educators and practitioners to implement these competences,
Arredondo and Toporek (1996) expanded and mobilised them into measurable
behaviours and activities. In this expanded version, the authors described a
framework for the development of the competences and included explanatory
statements for each competence along with strategies for achieving them. The
newest version of the competences differentiates multi-culturality and diversity. Multiculturality
refers to ethnicity, race and culture, whereas diversity means to other
individual differences including age, gender, sexual orientation, religion, etc.
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