Identify and briefly explain at least two challenges or difficulties that counselors may be faced with as they try to integrate elements of clients’ multiple identities into counseling.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Counseling training and practices historically have a tendency to view client identities separately, ignoring the fact that individual clients may have multiple identities thus posing a challenge for the counselor to integrate the multiple identities of the client into practice. The multicultural movement owes it origin to the human rights, women’s rights, and gay rights movements. Each of these movements focused its effort on addressing only one area of diversity. Consequently, research efforts and theories have been single-diversity focused. When this single-diversity focus is applied to clients with multiple identities (e.g., a multiracial, female, impoverished), the counselor faces the danger of minimizing some aspects of the client that are salient. In practice, the counselor may face the likelihood of being overwhelmed in the process of trying to embrace the multiple identities of a client.