Training in Interpretation of Cultural Data: Understanding its Effect on Multicultural Case Conceptualizations

Abstract

Multicultural counseling competence is an expected competency for counseling trainees and professionals and considerable research and scholarship has been devoted to analyzing multicultural counseling competencies and its relation to clinical skills such as case conceptualizations, providing culturally sensitive treatments, and diagnosis. While as a field we recognize the importance of understanding psychological presentations within a cultural context, there is great ambiguity and variability in attention paid to and incorporation of cultural factors in counseling. This study aimed to address this ambiguity by training counselor trainees how to interpret cultural data and create a comprehensive understanding of clients. This was achieved by training students in the interpretation of cultural data and analyzing their subsequent case conceptualizations for multicultural sensitivity. Using a single case research design no functional relationship was identified between training in interpretation of cultural data and multicultural case conceptualization skills. The results of the study indicated weak effects for two of the seven participants involved in the training intervention. Implications for research and training is suggested.