Multicultural Connections: Using Stories to Transcend Cultural Boundaries in Supervision

Abstract

stories have long been used in various cultures and settings to help make meaning and enhance awareness. the authors describe how reflection on and discussion of myths and fairy tales in supervision may help transcend cultural boundaries and increase multicultural understanding. las historias se han utilizado durante mucho tiempo en diversas culturas y escenarios para facilitar la comprensión de significado y aumentar el nivel de conciencia. los autores describen cómo la reflexión y la discusión de mitos y cuentos en la supervisión pueden ayudar a trascender barreras culturales y elevar el entendimiento multicultural. Stories have long assisted individuals and cultures in making meaning of experience. Recently, stories have also been used in supervision to facilitate supervisee growth (Anderson & Holmes, 2007;Crocket, 2004;London & Tarragona, 2007;Sax, 2006;Sommer & Cox, 2003;Ward & Sommer, 2006). The question of how stories from diverse cultures could be used in supervision to transcend cultural boundaries became the focus of an ongoing dialogue among members of the Supervision Research Interest Group at the University of Mississippi. This is a diverse group consisting of a female faculty member (first author) and three female (second, fourth, and sixth authors) and two male (third and fifth authors) doctoral students. Members represent various regions of the United States, South Korea, and Hong Kong. At the time of this writing, we found no literature that addressed the unique intersection of stories, supervision, and multicultural competency. In this article, we offer background information regarding the need for multicultural competency in supervision, the value of reflective practices in counselor education, the practice of narrative supervision, and the use of stories as meaning-making tools. Each of these areas contributes to our discussion of three stories from diverse cultures along with anecdotal evidence of how participants at an international conference responded to these stories. Suggestions for incorporating culturally diverse stories in counselor education curriculum are included.

Using interpersonal process recall in clinical supervision to enhance supervisees’ multicultural awareness

“…Although there are numerous calls to emphasize multicultural awareness in clinical supervision (e.g., Bernard & Goodyear, 2014;Constantine, 1997;Sommer et al, 2009), few explicit interventions to do so have been described and illustrated. It is our thesis that IPR is a particularly salient intervention for indirectly challenging supervisees' unconscious and semiconscious cultural attitudes and beliefs, thus allowing them to work more effectively with their culturally diverse clients.…”

Promoting Cognitive Complexity in Counselor Education: Constructivist and Phenomenological Practices

“…Model expansion may occur by means of exposure to multiplicity, which suggests that “changes in self‐awareness are spurred by increasing the realm of conceived possibility … to include a more diverse array of viable possibilities” (Wilkinson & Hanna, , p. 14). Constructivist teaching methods provide exposure to multiplicity via instructional activities to increase open‐mindedness (Bell, Limberg, Jacobson, & Super, ; Deaver & Shiflett, ; Mullen, Luke, & Drewes, ; Ziff & Beamish, ), tolerance for ambiguity (Bohecker, Vereen, Wells, & Wathen, ; Levitt & Jacques, ; Luft & Roughley, ; Pompeo & Levitt, ), multicultural sensitivity (Arthur & Achenbach, ; Brubaker, Puig, Reese, & Young, ; Shaw, Bayne, & Lorelle, ; Sommer et al, ), and self‐awareness (Conlon, ; Duffy, Saltis, Thompson, & Kassirer, ; Gladding, ; Jones & Granello, ; Lawrence & Coaston, ).…”

Using Analogies to Enhance Self‐Awareness and Cultural Empathy: Implications for Supervision

“…In an effort to facilitate understanding of multicultural issues, multicultural supervisors are beginning to include nontraditional supervision strategies, for example, the use of stories (Sommer et al, 2009). These nontraditional or experiential teaching strategies are perceived to be essential in helping students to increase their self-awareness and cultural empathy because they are emotionally engaging and have a stronger impact on both the formation of attitudes (Chaiken, 1980) and behavior (Brewin, 1989) than does intellectually processed information.…”