Promoting Cultural Relativism in Counselors through the Cultural De-Centering Model

Abstract

Counselors who are culturally encapsulated are likely to create client mistrust and to misinterpret clients' cultural norms. This article presents the Cultural De-Centering Model (CDCM) as a constructive-developmental method for helping future counselors to be less ethnocentric in their work. The goal of the CDCM is to increase counselors' cultural relativism. Through the CDCM counselors are asked to name and challenge their assumptions about race/ethnicity, gender, religion, sexual orientation, and social class. They are then asked to re-examine the foundations of those assumptions and begin constructing culturally de-centered perspectives.

Assessing and Promoting Cultural Relativism in Students of Counseling

“…It was piloted for two semesters, and revised for clarity after each semester based upon feedback from participants and consultation with colleagues (McAuliffe 2008;McAuliffe and Milliken 2009). Other than the aforementioned efforts to enhance construct validity, no additional information was gathered regarding reliability or other types of validity.…”

A Constructivist Perspective for Integrating Spirituality Into Counselor Training

“…Constructivist principles encourage active reflection, which promotes trainees' understanding of how they came to hold particular beliefs. By reflecting on what has influenced their own beliefs, trainees may better understand and value how others can arrive at different beliefs (McAuliffe & Milliken, 2009). An activity that can encourage reflection regarding human and spiritual development is to ask trainees to create a spiritual genogram.…”

Using Art-Based Multicultural Interventions to Reduce Counselor Trainees' Ethnocentrism

“…One example of a theory-based experiential teaching method for reducing culturecentrism is the Cultural De-Centering Activity (CDCA) (see Appendix) developed by McAuliffe & Milliken (2009). It is based on the developmental theory of Robert Kegan (1998).…”

“…Prior to attending a multicultural issues counseling course, students completed the written version of the CDCA assignment (McAuliffe & Milliken, 2009). Then, for the first part of the CDCA-V procedure, participants were provided cardstock, tracing paper, tape, glue, pencil, markers, colored pencil, and magazines.…”