Abstract
Concrete examples or models of multicultural counselling training (MCT) that incorporate direct counselling and psychotherapy with diverse clients and infuse concepts of culture and social justice in the interventions of counsellor and therapist trainees are rare. Against this backdrop, this chapter presents and details a unique model of MCT based on a refugee-serving multicultural counselling and therapy practicum for clinical psychology Ph.D. students. Grounded in experiential and service-learning principles and approaches and a university-community collaboration, student trainees in this practicum provided direct counselling, therapy, and emotional support to community-based refugee survivors of trauma and torture. In this chapter, I will first introduce this refugee-serving multicultural practicum by describing the contextual, conceptual, and structural characteristics of this practicum, including the target clients, the conceptual/philosophical bases, and the structure and the learning conditions of this MCT. I will then present an illustrative case example to help elucidate the inner working processes, the therapy interactions, and the learning impacts of this practicum. The case of Luah, a female Karen-speaking Burmese refugee client, and her therapist trainee, Crystal, an English-speaking, Canadian-born graduate student of European descent will be described in detail. Hence, this chapter hopes to present a promising, alternative MCT model – a multicultural therapy practicum – to help prepare and facilitate multicultural counselling and social advocacy competencies for future counsellors and therapists.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
American Psychological Association. (2010). Resilience and recovery after war: Refugee children and families in the United States. Washington, DC: Author. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/pubs/info/reports/refugees.aspx
Arthur, N., & Collins, S. (2016). Multicultural counselling in the Canadian context. In N. Gazzola, M. Buchanan, O. Sutherland, & S. Nuttgens (Eds.), Handbook of counselling and psychotherapy in Canada (pp. 73–93). Ottawa, ON: Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association.
Barden, S. M., & Greene, J. H. (2015). An investigation of multicultural counseling competence and multicultural counseling self-efficacy for counselors-in-training. International Journal for the Advancement of Counselling, 37, 41–53. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10447-014-9224-1
Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). Contexts of child rearing: Problems and prospects. American Psychologist, 34, 844–850. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.34.10.844
Cates, J., & Schaefle, S. (2009). Infusing multicultural training into practicum. Journal of Counseling Research and Practice, 1(1), 32–41. Retrieved from https://mica.memberclicks.net/
City of Windsor. (2018). Welcoming refugees. Retrieved February 2, 2018, from https://www.citywindsor.ca/residents/socialservices-/Social-Services-Overview/welcoming-refugees/Pages/default.aspx
Collins, S., & Arthur, N. (2010a). Culture-infused counselling: A fresh look at a classic framework of multicultural counselling competencies. Counseling Psychology Quarterly, 23(2), 203–216. https://doi.org/10.1080/09515071003798204
Collins, S., & Arthur, N. (2010b). Culture-infused counseling: A model for developing cultural competence. Counseling Psychology Quarterly, 23(2), 217–233. https://doi.org/10.1080/09515071003798212
Ginsberg, F., & Sinacore, A. L. (2015). Articulating a social justice agenda for Canadian counselling and counselling psychology. In A. Sinacore & F. Ginsberg (Eds.), Canadian counselling and counselling psychology in the 21st century (pp. 254–272). Montreal, QC: McGill-Queens University Press.
Gorman, W. (2001). Refugee survivors of torture: Trauma and treatment. Professional Psychology: Practice and Research, 32, 443–451. https://doi.org/10.1037//0735-7028.32.5.443
Government of Canada. (2017). #WelcomeRefugees: Key figures. Retrieved June 23, 2017, from http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/refugees/welcome/milestones.asp
Kuo, B. C. H., & Arcuri, A. (2014). Multicultural therapy practicum involving refugees: Description and illustration of a training model. The Counselling Psychologist, 42, 1021–1052. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011000013491610
Kuo, B. C. H., & Boucher, C. M. (submitted). Training and preparing mental health professionals to work with refugee clients through an innovative multicultural psychotherapy training practicum. In J. Kottler, S. Banu, & S. Jani (Eds.), Handbook of refugee experience: Trauma, resilience, and recovery.
Kuo, B. C. H., Huang, S., Keshavarzi, S., & Taylor, R. (In revisions). Facilitating cultural transition: Counselling and clinical interventions with immigrants and refugees. In G. McAullife (Ed.). Culturally alert counselling: A comprehensive introduction. CA: Sage Publication.
Pieterse, A. L. (2009). Teaching antiracism in counselor training: Reflections on a course. Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development, 37, 141–152. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-1912.2009.tb00098.x
Priester, P. E., Jones, J. E., Jackson-Bailey, C. M., Jana-Masri, A., Jordan, E. X., & Metz, A. (2008). An analysis of content and instructional strategies in multicultural counseling courses. Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development, 36, 29–39. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-1912.2008.tb00067.x
Rousseau, C. (2017). Addressing mental health needs of refugee. The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 1–3. https://doi.org/10.1177/0706743717746664
Smith, T. B., Constantine, M. G., Dunn, T. W., Dinehart, J. M., & Montoya, J. A. (2006). Multicultural education in the mental health professions: A meta-analytic review. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 53, 132–145. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0167.53.1.132
Sue, D. W., & Sue, D. (2016). Counseling the culturally diverse: Theory and practice (6th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Vasilevska, B., Madan, A., & Simich, L. (2010). Refugee mental health: Promising practices and partnership building resources. Toronto, ON: Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. Retrieved from https://www.porticonetwork.ca/documents/51609/273390/refugee_mental_health_prompractices.pdf/
Vera, E. M., & Speight, S. L. (2007). Advocacy, outreach, and prevention: Integrating social action roles in professional training. In E. Aldarondo (Ed.), Advancing social justice through clinical practice (pp. 373–390). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Kuo, B.C.H. (2018). Refugee-Serving Multicultural Therapy Practicum: An Example of a Culture-Infused, Service-Based Training Program. In: Arthur, N. (eds) Counselling in Cultural Contexts. International and Cultural Psychology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00090-5_16
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00090-5_16
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-00089-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-00090-5
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and PsychologyBehavioral Science and Psychology (R0)