InfusingCulturalCompetenceandAdvocacyIntoStrength-BasedCounseling.pdf

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INNOVATIVE HUMANISTIC PRACTICE
AND RESEARCH

Infusing Cultural Competence
and Advocacy Into Strength-Based

Counseling

TIM GROTHAUS
GARRETT McAULlFEE

LAURIE CRAIGEN

strength-based counseling represents a welcome shift from prevailing deficit perspectives.

However, the literature often treats enhancing strengths as an acultural concept, minimiz-

ing or ignoring the essential role of culture informing and defining strengths. Integrating

cultural competence and advocacy into strength-based practice is examined as an antidote

to ethnocentric practice.

Strength-based counseling perspectives are attracting increasing notice in the
professional literature, representing a paradigm shift from the deficit or medi-
cal model prevalent in many settings today (Galassi & Akos, 2004; Harley,
2009; Peterson, 2006). This seemingly nascent movement appears to have the
earmarks associated with new models of research and practice (e.g., lack of a
coherent theoretical framework, the recent emergence of useful models, and
a relative scarcity of empirical outcome research; Harris, Thoreson, & Lopez,
2007; E. J. Smith, 2006). While the advent of sti:ength-based counseling in its
current form was relatively recent, it has deep and varied historical roots in both
coimseling and coimseHng psychology, particularly through the prevention,
resuience, humanistic, career development, positive psychology, educational,
and social work perspectives (Albee, 1984; Galassi & Akos, 2007; Peterson,
2006; SeUgman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000). In fact, the initial impulse behind
counseling work—the vocational guidance movement—expressed the core
strength-based notion that individuals grow from building on their assets.
In addition, an emerging body of research appears to indicate that the “best
predictors of children’s functional outcome into adulthood lay not in the relief
of their symptoms but rather in an understanding, appreciation, and nurtur-

Tim Grothaus, Garrett McAuliffe, and Laurie Craigen, Counseling and Human Services, Old Do-
minion University. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Tim Grothaus,
Counseling and Human Services, Old Dominion University, 110 Education Building, Norfolk, VA
23529 (e-mail: [email protected]).

© 20Ï2 by the American Counseling Association. Atl rights reserved.

Journal of HUMANISTIC COUNSELING • April 2012 • Volume 51 5 1

anee of their strengths and assets” (Goldstein & Brooks, 2006, p. xüi). The time
appears ripe to reclaim the counseling field’s roots in strengtb-based practice
(McAuliffe & Erikson, 1999).

THE POWER OF CULTURE

Culture, regarded as encompassing a constellation of factors (e.g., gender,
ability status, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status,
spirituality), is an essential factor in forming behaviors, attitudes, strengths,
beliefs, and values (Delpit, 1995; Harris, Thoreson, & Lopez, 2007; Lindsey,
Roberts, & Campbelljones, 2005). Despite the pervasive influence of culture,
it is not uncommon for the strength-based counseling literature to either
treat strength as if it were an acultural concept or consider the topic solely
from the perspective of the dominant culture (Leong & Paul, 2003; Ungar,
2005).The shortsightedness of this approach is evident when one considers
that characteristics seen as strengths in one culture may be experienced as
deficits in another culture or situation (E. J. Smith, 2006). For instance, main-
stream culture may emphasize individualism, materialism, and competition
as strengths, yet those in collectivistic cultures may view these “assets” as
sources of problems (Harley, 2009; Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000). One
important aspect of culture—race or ethnicity—can illustrate additional
reasons for concern. The vast majority (approximately 87%) of counselors
in the United States represent the dominant European American culture
(Bemak, 2005). In addition, graduate counseling preparation programs
are regarded as inadequate in their infusion of multicultural competence
training in both course content and field experiences (Sue & Sue, 2003). To
add to the concern, research findings suggest that European Americans are
both less knowledgeable about multicultural issues and less multiculturally
aware than persons of color (Yeh & Aurora, 2003).

As counselors work to promote human growth, they must recognize
that such development is “inextricably embedded in family, neighbor-
hood, school, community, society, and culture and cannot be considered
in isolation from these contexts” (Walsh, Galassi, Murphy, & Park-Taylor,
2002, p. 686). With the paucity of literature addressing strengths and
optimal functioning in diverse, nondominant cultures (Sue & Constan-
tine, 2003), practitioners and researchers need to be careful to avoid
the trap of ethnocentric monoculturalism that has thus far influenced
our standards and conceptualizations of strengths (Whalen et al., 2004).
Culturally sensitive strength-based counseling can help empower cli-
ents from diverse groups to overcome the dominant culture’s negative
views of their cultural characteristics and instead to embrace and em-
ploy these cultural attributes (Harley, 2009). The purpose of this article
is to explore the infusion of cultural competence and advocacy into
strength-based practice as a means of enhancing efficacy and ethical
practice in counseling.

5 2 Joumal of HUMANISTIC COUNSELING • April 2012 • Volume 51

CULTURAL COMPETENCE AND
STRENGTH-BASED COUNSELING

Mulficultural covmseHng competence has been defined as “the extent to which
counselors possess appropriate levels of self-awareness, knowledge, and skiUs
in working with individuals from diverse cultural backgrounds” (Constanfine,
Hage, Kindaichi, & Bryant, 2007, p. 24; see also Sue, Arredondo, & McDavis,
1992). Each of these three competency domains wiU be briefly addressed.

Self-Awareness

As Ponterotto, Utsey, and Pedersen (2006) note, “The first step for counselors…
is to work through their own ethnocentrism” (p. 151). Couriselors are challenged
to know their own cultures, acknowledge their unearned privilege statuses,
and examine the biases present in their worldview and in the discourse of
their counseling theories. Western counseling theories and approaches such as
strength-based coimseüng may prove useful, but coimselors need to recognize
that the theories, the coimselors who utilize them, and their clients are always
“in culture” (McAuliffe, Grothaus, Pare, & Wininger, 2008). Through mulficul-
tural self-awareness, counselors can discover their own guiding religious and/
or spiritual, ethnic, social class, gender, ability, and sexual orientafion perspec-
fives, to name some examples, so that they do not impose them on clients. Such
cultural self-awareness can also introduce counselors to the strengths of their
own cultures, which can then be a model for their work with clients. Counselors
also need to assess their preferred communicafion styles for the effects they have
on clients (T. B. Smith, Richards, Granley, & Obiakor, 2004). For enhancement of
counselors’ cultural self awareness, it appears that the most effecfive awareness-
buüding acfivifies involve experienüal leaining, including immersion experiences
within the community and acfive engagement with culturally diverse people
(Endicott, Bock, & Narvaez, 2003; Ponterotto et al., 2006).

Knowledge

Enhancing mulficultural knowledge requires acfive leaming about diverse
worldviews (Ponterotto et al., 2006). To educate themselves, in addifion to
personal engagement with diverse peoples and communifies, counselors can
parficipate in cultural events, read widely, view diverse Internet and media
presentafions, and consult with cultural informants, that is, “people who
provide insight about an indigenous group . . . usually, cultural informants
are bi-cultural, meaning they can maneuver fluently both in mainstream
American culture and in their own indigenous culture” (Day-Vines, Patton,
& Bay tops, 2003, p. 49). Counselors’ cultural knowledge needs to include an
understanding of the strengths that clients derive from their various cultural
group memberships, as well as considerafion of the clients’ sociopolifical
history and context, including their personal experiences of discrimination

Journal of HUMANISTIC COUNSELING • April 2012 • Volume 51 5 3

and oppression. CUents may have developed some of their strengths through
the process of deaUng with the adversifies inherent in occupying nondomi-
nant status in mainstream U.S. culture. In addition, counselors should know
about the potenfial posifive dimensions of cUents’ cultural groups, such as
extended kinship networks, famUial piety, being bUingual, flexible gender
roles, spiritual strengths, storytelling, conceptualizafion of time and con-
nectedness, resiUence, and indigenous heaUng pracfices (BumhiU, Park, &
Yeh, 2009; Harley, 2009; Sue & Constanfine, 2003; Vülalba, 2007). Coimselors
can use culturally oriented quesfioning (McAuUffe, Grothaus, et al., 2008)
with cUents to evoke those strengths or suggest these strengths to cUents.

Skills and Counseling Approaches

Effecfive use of culturally alert skills in strength-based counseling builds
on this foundation of counselor cultural self-awareness and knowledge of
the client’s worldview (Hunt, Matthews, Milsom, & Lammel, 2006; Sciarra,
Chang, McLean, & Wong, 2005). While the skuls domain of multicultural
competency is still relatively new and evolving, there have been some
promising research results (McAuUffe, Grothaus, et al., 2008). As Ancis
(2004c) notes, “several studies suggest that culturaUy sensifive intervenfions
may increase service utilization, length of treatment, client satisfaction,
and therapy outcomes . . . (yet) examination of the applicability of specific
treatment procedures to culturally diverse populations has received lim-
ited attention” (p. ix). Studies have also linked culturally alert counseling
practices with stronger therapeutic alliances and enhanced perception of
the counselor’s credibility, trustworthiness, and effectiveness (Ancis, 2004b;
Zang & Dixon, 2001). Research also suggests that it is beneficial for the
counselor to initiate discussion with the client(s) about culture and cultural
strengths (Day-Vines et al., 2007; Harley, 2009).

Two approaches to culturally alert strength-based counseling might be
discerned. One is to apply a particular cultural strength-oriented approach
with certain cUents, as the following three examples illustrate. NTU psycho-
therapy is a strength-based treatment model that accentuates the importance
of culture and is steeped in African philosophy and spirituality. “The word
‘NTU’ (pronounced in-to) . . . [is] the cosmic, universal force from which
all of life emanates . . . an aw^areness, and support and reinforcement of
strength, competence, capacity, and resiUence as opposed to pathology”
(Jackson, Gregory, & Davis, 2004, pp. 50-52). The authors elaborate on
the six characteristics of this model: (a) spirituality; (b) focus on family,
including both biological and psychological members; (c) appreciation of
cultural characteristics; (d) emphasis on strengths; (e) embracing a holistic
and systemic perspective and commitment to values; and (f) the four cen-
tral principles of harmony, balance, authenticity, and interconnectedness.
Similarly, gay-affirmative counseling (Davies & Neal, 1996) emphasizes the
positive dimensions of being gay while acknowledging social prejudice.

54 Journal of HUMANISTIC COUNSELING • April 2012 • Volume 51

Davies and Neal suggest actively supporting gay chents’ appreciation of
“the body self” and of body impulses, both areas that gay persons who
are in early identity stages might have negative feelings about. The au-
thors also promote helping gay clients establish gay support systems, as
affirming “chosen families.” Davies and Neal also suggest encouraging
clients to cormect with gay-oriented culture, including music, reading,
and community events. Finally, noting the need for relevant models of
therapy for working with American Indians, Robbins and Harrist (2004)
contend that “the use of many conventional therapeutic approaches with
American Indians may reenact colonization” (p. 23). They describe the use
of American Indian constructionalist family therapy, which acknowledges
social oppression but emphasizes strengths and possibilities and operates
in a “radically collaborative” (p. 29) fashion.

As an alternafive or complement to the models aimed at specific cultural
groups, other approaches to irifusing cultural strengths in counseling tend to
be more universal. They involve strategically integrating cultural strengths
into the counseling sessions. Psychotherapy as Liberafion (PL; Ivey, 1995) is
one model for such work. In the PL approach, the counselor first assesses the
client’s cultural idenfity phase, then chooses intervenfions that are regarded
as effecfive and congruent for clients in that phase. For example, in the first
cultural identity phase, naive/acceptant, a client might unquesfioningly ac-
cept a subordinate role in the mainstream culture as a consequence of being
a member of her or his nondominant culture(s). In this phase, the counselor
can assist the client in arficulating the story of discriminafion and/or op-
pression in concrete terms with reference to the cultural dimensions of the
situafion(s). The use of strength-based counseling is especially vital in the
next client phase—naming and resistance. In this phase, the client is begin-
ning to be aware of the enculturafion that has led to internalized oppression.
The counselor encourages and assists in finding resources that can help the
client quesfion the assumpfions of his or her naive/acceptant stance. For
example, an African American client who feels isolated and intimidated in
her workplace by the White male environment might be helped to name the
contradicfions she is experiencing and then challenge them as unhelpful social
construcfions. The counselor can then help her generate the strengths inher-
ent in being an African American woman by having her meet other, similar
accomplished women and noting their common characterisfics and stories.
Similarly, in the next phase, redefinifion and refiection, during which clients
are rethinking the oppressive roles to which they have been subjected, the
counselor can affirm client growth and use of strengths by reflecting client
progress in empowering herself or himself. Such might be the case with a
woman who has experienced domesfic violence. In this case, the counselor
can help the client continue to redefine herself and her concepfion of gender
roles by taking acfions such as parficipating in a support group. There, she
rrüght see her agency in taking control of her life as a woman, as well as her
solidarity with other women.

Joumal of HUMANISTIC COUNSELING • April 2012 • Volume 51 55

Additional examples of counseling approaches that evoke cultural strengths
include guided imagery with positive cultural symbols (Ivey, D’Andrea,
Ivey, & Simek-Morgan, 2002), in which a client visualizes positive images
of her or his culture and applies those positive images in moments of self-
doubt and oppression. Another is the application of the solution-focused
counseling method of finding positive exceptions to negative cultural ste-
reotypes and using those exceptions to build a desired state of feeling or
agency. Use of the narrative therapy (NT) notion of “unhelpful” stories that
a client may have constructed about her or his culture can enable a client
to deconstruct such stories by identifying the negative story in the cultural
narrative that she or he observed. By contrast, in NT, the client creates a
positive, strength-based, and more helpful cultural narrative, such as “My
working-class people are hard-working and relational” versus “They are
dull and unambitious.” The client then seeks evidence for the more helpful
story through intentional conversations, observations, and reading.

In the following section, we present a hypothetical vignette and some
suggested culturally alert strength-based counseling interventions.

Case Vignette

Keith is an 11-year-old African American boy raised by his grandpar-
ents. Rose and James. Both Rose and James are retired; Rose was a nurse
and James was an accountant. Rose and James live in a predominantly
White middle-class neighborhood. The school that Keith attends is also
predominantly White. Rose called the New Visions Counseling Center
because Keith, who has typically been an “easy and pleasant” child, is
acting out at school and at home. He is displaying what his grandparents
consider disrespectful behaviors at home, and his grades are dropping
significantly.

When Keith enters the counseling center, his head is down and he is visibly
upset about coming to counseling. When asked, “What brings you here?” he
replies, “I don’t know and I don’t care!” Over the next few sessions, Keith
slowly begins to warm up to the idea of counseling. He and his counselor
begin to develop a playful and honest relationship. In Session 4, Keith ad-
mits that he has been angry lately. He shares, “I wish I had normal parents
Uke the rest of my friends. My grandparents can’t do very much with me
because they are so old. I wish they were cool Uke my friends’ parents. My
real mom is so uncool that she couldn’t even take care of me and I have
never even met my Dad!”

SUGGESTIONS EOR CULTURALLY ALERT
STRENGTH-BASED COUNSELING

Counselors demonstrating a strength-based counseling approach could in-
tervene in a number of different ways with Keith. Most of all, the counselor

56 Journal of HUMANISTIC COUNSELING • April 2012 • Volume 51

should pay particular attention to the positive elements of his situation,
without trying to talk him out of his negative feelings. For example, the
coimselor might ask, “What unique experiences have you had living with
your grandparents that many of your friends might not have had?” Some
possible elements that could be cued are some freedoms they allow him,
their good cooking, the movies they watch together, the church and youth
group they attend together, the fact that they are home with him when
other parents are out working, the nice house they live in, and the things
they have because they have more money in their older age than young
parents. Or the counselor can ask, “What can you do with grandparents
that would be harder to learn from parents?” or “What are some positive
lessons that your grandparents have taught you in Hfe?” These questions
would encourage Keith to examine some of the assets of living with his
grandparents that he may have ignored before.

In addition to the aforementioned approaches, a culturafly competent
counselor would also assess and work with Keith’s phase of cultural identity.
Keith’s negative affect at home and his disclosure about his grandparents
and mom being “uncool” may indicate that he is functioning at the first
cultural identity phase, naive/acceptant. If this is the case, the counselor
could begin to assist Keith in examining the various cultural dimensions
of his current living situation: “Tell me what it is like being a young Black
male in your neighborhood (or school)?”

If Keitia has negative feelings about being Black, or just being different,
he can be helped to discover the strengths of his ethnicity. For example, the
counselor may ask, “Who are your heroes?” (with suggestions about African
American role models from the media, history, or literature). Or “Tell me about
your church or place of worship. What are the kids like?” Bibliotherapy or
video tiierapy might be in also, with suggested readings and videos on
African American themes being suggested to his teachers and grandparents.
In that vein, the counselor can consult with Keith’s teachers so that they
encourage peer interactions and introduce discussions of the many diversi-
ties and commonalities in the class (ethnicity, gender, abilities, religion, etc.).

These examples highlight ways that counselors can actively work against
prejudice and oppression by helping clients to find their cultural strengths
(Ancis, 2004a; Constantine, 2006; Miville & Ferguson, 2006), and, if clients
desire, by assisting them as they learn the “codes needed to participate
fully in the mainstream of American life . . . while learning the culture of
power, they must also be helped to learn about the arbitrariness of these
codes” (Delpit, 1995, p. 45). Such an approach can be used with working-
class clients, women, gay persons, chents with disabüities, older clients,
and clients from nondominant ethnic groups, or any clients who may have
learned to value the dominant narrative over their own culture’s narrative.
As Galassi and Akos (2004) point out, “counselors are both direct service
providers and advocates for the qualities and contexts that research has
shown facilitate achievement and positive . . . development” (p. 153).

Joumal of HUMANISTIC COUNSELING • April 2012 • Volume 51 57

INTEGRATING ADVOCACY INTO
STRENGTH-BASED INTERVENTIONS

Advocacy is increasingly touted as a complementary and necessary set of
skills and actions for professional counselors (Lewis, Arnold, House, &
Toporek, 2002). It is also a means of increasing clients’ strengths. For pur-
poses of this discussion, advocacy will be defined as “the act of empowering
individuals or groups through actions that increase self-efficacy, remove
barriers to needed services, and promote systemic change” (McAuliffe,
Grothaus, et al., 2008, p. 613). Advocacy is woven into the fundamental
fabric of our profession. One of the pioneers of our profession, Frank
Parsons, embraced the role of counselor as social activist throughout his
career (e.g., fighting the dehumanizing elements of large corporations and
advocating for women’s suffrage). For Parsons, counseling and activism
for social justice were inextricably intertwined.

Contemporary voices echo this passion for justice and equity, declaring
that a preeminent role of a strength-based counselor is to advocate for em-
powerment and healthy development, as it is contextually and culturally
defined, for all people. This entails work in session with clients and “out”
with the institutions, environments, and policies that affect clients’ lives
(Galassi & Akos, 2007). This call is consistent with a strength-based model
of counseling. As Whalen et al. (2004) observe, “ultimately, counselors must
consider the question of whether or how individuals can develop optimally
in an oppressive culture. . . . Counseling must help foster an active com-
mitment to actively challenge injustice” (p. 382).

In to challenge a status quo that maintains inequities, advocacy
must be part of strength-based counseling. Clients’ struggles and issues
are not solely intrapsychic concerns. Counselors need to acknowledge and
validate the experience of racism, sexism, ableism, heterosexism, and other
forms of oppression that clients experience (Ancis, 2004a; Constanfine, 2006;
Liu, Hernandez, Mahmood, & Stinson, 2006). In addition, cfient empow-
erment and acfions for justice need to follow (Ancis, 2004b; Constantine,
2006; Day-Vines et al., 2003; Kim, 2005; Roysircar, 2006; Simcox, Nuijens,
& Lee, 2006; T. B. Smith et al., 2004; Vera, Buhin, & Shin, 2006). Counseling
that disregards sociopolitical and economic factors may not be effective or
ethical. As Herlihy and Watson (2003) point out.

The traditional one-on-one, in-the-office approach may have limited value with cli-
ents whose problems originate in social discrimination and oppression. Counselors
operating as advocates, social change agents, and consultants can help minority
clients leam skills they can use to interact successfully with various forces within
their commurüty. The client and counselor, working together coUegially, can address
urüiealthy forces within the system and design prevention programs to reduce the
negative impact of discrimination and oppression, (p. 368)

Advocacy is an attitude as well as actions with and on behalf of clients
(Kaffenberger, Davis, Gilchrist-Banks, & Grothaus, 2008). Acts of advocacy

58 Journal of HUMANISTIC COUNSELING • April 2012 • Volume 51

can range from simple interventions, such as negotiating for appropriate
services for cUents, to more complex and challenging undertakings, involv-
ing the following: empowerment, collaboration, development of critical
consciousness, persistence, leadership, systems analysis, use of data, and
promotion of social change within institutions and communities (Constan-
tine et al, 2007; Lewis et al., 2002; Ratts, DeKruyf, & Chen-Hayes, 2007). No
system is completely equitable; no community satisfactorily serves all of
its stakeholders. One could surmise that when counselors are not engaging
in advocacy, they are a part of the problem.

Empowerment, a core principle of strength-based work, is viewed as a
culturally influenced process (Savage, Harley, & Nowak, 2005). It can be
encouraged through engaging in a respectful, collaborative partnership
with one’s cUent(s) in which client strengths are recognized and vaUdated
(HipoUto-Delgado & Lee, 2007). The goals of empowerment include three
elements: “fostering critical consciousness, fadUtating the development
of positive identity, and encouraging social action” (Sciarra & Whitson,
2007, p. 336).

Promoting Critical Consciousness

Critical consciousness involves recognizing the effects of social structures
on people and acting against the oppressive elements of society. Counselors
can help cUents to become crificaUy conscious by pointing out discrepancies
between their experiences and society’s biases and by informing them of
social arrangements that are harmful to nondominant groups. It should be
noted that becoming crificaUy conscious is not always a pleasant or easy
perspective to embrace. CUents might resist such a change in perspecfive,
from tinthinking acceptance of social stratificafion to a restless questioning
of the status quo (McAuUffe, Darmer, Grothaus, & Doyle, 2008).

Encouraging Cultural Identity Development

Counselor facilitation of positive identity for clients and the empowerment
it may bring can be guided by the relevant cultural idenfity development
models (e.g., see Ponterotto et al., 2006). Those include gay identity models
(e.g., Szymanski, 2008), ethnic idenfity models (e.g.. Harper & McFadden,
2003), and racial idenfity models (e.g., HeUns, 1990; McAuUffe, Gomez, &
Grothaus, 2008). Counselors can guide clients through phases of cultural
identity, from self-disparagement and inferiority through discovery of
discriminatory social arrangements to pride and perhaps to multicultural
identities. At certain stages, strengths are central to identity development.
For example, a cUent in the immersion stage can be helped to discover role
models, contributions of her or his culture, and the strengths that that cul-
ture brings to her or his life. In that way, she or he might move to a more
reflective perspective on culture, incorporating pride with it.

Journal of HUMANISTIC COUNSELING • April 2012 • Volume 51 59

Participating in Social Action

Counselors are in ideal positions to attend to both individual acts of
discrimination and the stresses that accompany being a member of a
nondominant group by building upon an individual’s strengths and be-
ing alert to and acting on instances of institutionalized oppression. An
apt analogy might be that of a driver who replenishes her or his vehicle’s
fuel but disregards the hole in the tank. In similar fashion, without a
commitment to advocacy, a counselor is quite possibly an unwitting
accomplice to the maintenance of an oppressive societal status quo. As
noted by Bienvenu and Ramsey (2006), “counselors must be advocates
. . . as advocates, counselors are systemic change agents, working to affect
social systems in ways that will ultimately benefit the . . . clients with
whom they work” (p. 348).

Unfortunately, there are abundant issues to address, on both a lo-
cal and a global level. For example, research indicates that as early as
first grade, girls and boys of diverse cultural background and lower
socioeconomic strata begin to restrict their occupational aspirations
(Jackson & Grant, 2004). In addition, students in more affluent schools
are more likely to be enrolled in a rigorous curriculum, matriculate in
schools that have adequate educational resources, and be taught by a
highly qualified teacher (Bailey, Getch, & Chen-Hayes, 2007; Gordon,
2006). Yet, students from families with fewer economic resources are not
sentenced to second-class outcomes. In a number of school districts all
across the United States, the infusion of proven strength-based meth-
ods into the curriculum and operating procedures have been a catalyst
for significant gains in benchmark indicators (Sciarra, 2001). In mental
health counseling, counselors can be …