Integrating Technology with Multicultural Awareness in Counseling

When working with clients, I consistently strive to maintain my cultural sensitivity and awareness. Culture is not just limited to race or ethnic background, it may mean something unique to each individual; this can potentially make culture, an already somewhat sensitive subject, even more challenging to discuss. Together, my clients and I collaborate to discern the impact their culture, background, and identity has on their career concern. To me, the key to being an effective counselor is always building rapport and having a strong relationship with your client. Especially when addressing cultural concerns, this relationship becomes increasingly important. Now try placing your client behind a computer screen and building that same therapeutic alliance and relationship with them… It was hard enough to develop understanding and create rapport in person! Adding technology into the equation is certainly another challenge, but it is one that counselors are aware of. Counselor training programs, such as a the graduate program I am in, are discussing culturally relevant strategies to build technology-assisted relationships with clients that will allow for the same trust and understanding that may be developed in a traditional, face-to-face counseling.

The article linked HERE is published by the VISTAS Multicultural Issues in Counseling project, which is sponsored by the American Counseling Association. This article discusses such multicultural competency training, specifically involving the use of technology. The authors of the article suggest that many counseling programs fail to educate their students about the use of technology when working with diverse populations. Furthermore, the authors propose that current multicultural training programs do not encourage enough exploration and growth toward cultural competence in practice, only in cognitive attitudes. By incorporating technology into multicultural counseling classes, the authors find that counseling students are able to enhance their multicultural awareness and perspective of the world through participating in experiential learning.

Particularly when working with high school students, I seek to enhance my awareness and understanding of how they perceive their culture and the influence this may have on the college and career decisions. When building technology-assisted relationships with high school students, I hope to convey my compassion, open-mindedness, and willingness to serve as an advocate for them.