Multicultural Awareness Multiculturalism has a vital role in counseling. According to Hays (2010) this type of counseling pays attention to the cultural diversities of clients in order to offer better services. To achieve multicultural awareness, the counselor has to know his or her own cultural characteristics. This article will contain the results of the multicultural-assessments I completed, my reflection on being “other,” as well as my statement of counseling identity and the explanation why multicultural awareness is important in the mental health counseling profession. Results of Self-Assessment Completing Petrone’s (2004) multicultural self-assessment was interesting and eye opening. In this test, choice number 1 means seldom, if ever; number 5 means almost always. Most of my scores were either fours or fives; these results tell me that I am interested in other people, paying attention to listen, and I am comfortable with new situations. I scored three threes in the following subjects: 1) I ask questions until I am sure I understand what others are saying; 2) If I were at an event with people who differed from me, I would make every effort to talk with them; 3) I try not to assume anything. Reaction to Self-Assessment
After I finished the self-assessment, I immediately started thinking about the results. I realized that my not asking questions until I understand what others are saying is connected to the lower score about not assuming anything. Levitt (2010) talked about the importance of active listening, and asking the proper amount of questions is part of that process, besides assuming anything in counseling is an unethical behavior. The American Counseling Association (ACA, 2005) Code of Ethics emphasized that the counselor must avoid any kind of behavior that possibly could harm the client. Choosing number 3 associated with opening conversations with people who differ from me means that I will need to be more active around other individuals.