Culturally Alert Counseling DVD

Working With African American Clients

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Working with ethnically and racially diverse clients presents counselors with a unique set of opportunities and challenges. Understanding a client's worldview offers the opportunity to connect and build trust on a deeper level, but it also presents counselors with a challenge to develop the right set of skills unique to their client(s). This DVD presents a carefully illustrated counseling session, which brings out many issues common for working with African American clients. A White male counselor works with an African American professional woman on her adjustment to a new workplace and the challenges of being in an ethnic minority. The session brings out five key topics that can be included in counseling with African Americans: spirituality and religion, family, communication, language, and discrimination. The counselor demonstrates four dimensions of culturally alert counseling that may be important, especially for members of other cultural groups who are working with many African American clients: building trust, acknowledging societal bias, including family and ancestors in the work, and advocating. By viewing the session in its entirety, students and clinicians will benefit from seeing firsthand how the counselor manages the session and uses opportunities to deepen the therapeutic relationship.