Culturally Appropriate Treatment/Healing

The previous chapters were stepping-stones for this chapter. This chapter is how to walk the talk of multicultural counseling competencies and see the client from his worldview. The chapter discusses a provider’s preparedness in professional ethics, applicability of DSM for multicultural population, walk the talk of cultural competencies, and preparation for attitude, knowledge to develop culturally appropriate treatment. Culturally appropriate treatment includes honoring the client’s worldview and the culture, incorporating the client’s cultural healing tradition if he desires, and restoring the client’s dignity. A multiculturally competent provider asks questions using the client’s own words and not her interpretation of his words. She listens attentively and integrates art and knowledge through unconventional creative therapeutic techniques. The chapter ends with experiential learning activities through five case studiesn for readers' to assess their multicultural counseling competencies. The chapter discusses culturally appropriate treatment relies on accurate assessment and requires a provider’s willingness to develop treatment that (a) honors the client’s worldview and the client’s culture, (b) incorporates the client’s cultural healing traditions, and (c) restores the client’s sense of self.