Readings

Use your textbook, Sue and Sue’s Counseling the Culturally Diverse: Theory and Practice, to complete the following:

• Read Chapter 3, “Multicultural Counseling Competence for Counselors and Therapists of Marginalized Groups,” pages 71–101.
• Read Chapter 5, “The Impact of Systemic Oppression: Counselor Credibility and Client Worldviews,” pages 145–175.
• Read Chapter 7, “Barriers to Multicultural Counseling and Therapy: Individual and Family Perspectives,” pages 215–246.
• Read Chapter 10, “Non-Western Indigenous Methods of Healing: Implications for Multicultural Counseling and Therapy,” pages 321–347.
• Read Chapter 15, “Counseling American Indians/Native Americans and Alaska Natives,” pages 479–495.

Use the Internet to explore the current demographics in your own state. You will need this information to complete the second discussion for this unit.

Interview with True Thao: Being a Minority Mental Health Counselor

LAUNCH PRESENTATION |Transcript

Native American Ways of Knowing

LAUNCH PRESENTATION |Transcript

Multimedia

• Interview with True Thao: Being a Minority Mental Health Counselor. Click Launch Presentation to watch an interview with True Thao, a mental health counselor based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. True shares his insights and experiences as a Hmong counselor and counseling clients from both the dominant and minority cultures.
• Native American Ways of Knowing. Click Launch Presentation to hear Dr. Kim Spoor share her way of knowing, from the Anishinaabe perspective.

Optional Readings

The literature is rich with resources to help addiction professionals and therapists delve more deeply into the topics being covered in this course and to pursue their own special interests. In each unit you will find a reference list; look to these for information and use as you wish in your professional development. Please note that it is acceptable to draw from these resources for your discussions and assignments; however, you should not rely exclusively on these resources in completing assignments that require library research.

• Read Dana’s 2000 article, “The Cultural Self as Locus for Assessment and Intervention With American Indian/Alaska Natives,” from Journal of Multicultural Counseling & Development, volume 28, issue 2, pages 66–82.
• Read Echo-Hawk’s 2011 article, “Indigenous Communities and Evidence Building,” in Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, volume 43, issue 4, pages 269–275.
• Read Garrett, Garrett, Torres-Rivera, and Roberts-Wilbur’s 2005 article, “Laughing It Up: Native American Humor as Spiritual Tradition,” in Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development, volume 33, issue 4, pages 194–204.
• Read Gone and Calf Looking’s 2011 article, “American Indian Culture as Substance Abuse Treatment: Pursuing Evidence for a Local Intervention,” in Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, volume 43, issue 4, pages 291–296.
• Read Lane and Simmons’s 2011 article, “American Indian Youth Substance Abuse: Community-Driven Interventions,” in Mount Sinai Journal of Medicine, volume 78, issue 3, pages 362–372.
• Read Larios, Wright, Jernstrom, Lebron, and Sorensen’s 2011 article, “Evidence-Based Practices, Attitudes, and Beliefs in Substance Abuse Treatment Programs Serving American Indians and Alaska Natives: A Qualitative Study,” in Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, volume 43, issue 4, pages 355–359.
• Read Moghaddam and Momper’s 2011 article, “Integrating Spiritual and Western Treatment Modalities in a Native American Substance User Center: Provider Perspectives,” in Substance Use & Misuse, volume 46, issue 11, pages 1431–1437.
• Read Children’s Program Kit: Supportive Education for Children of Addicted Parents from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
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Addiction Professional and Client Characteristics

Referring to the unit readings and Tables 7.1 and 7.2, compare the generic characteristics of counseling with respect to culture, class, and language, with Native American characteristics in terms of culture, class, and language. Which characteristics most closely reflect your culture, class, and language?

Refer to Chapter 15 and at least one of the recommended readings and consider the types of mental health concerns you may be likely to encounter in counseling a Native American client, couple, family, or group (for example, the impact of educational disparities on career development). Address the following:

• How would your approach reflect your understanding of your own characteristics and those of your client or clients?
• How would the impact of historical and current oppression be important to your work?
• Discuss the implications of the client’s characteristics and concerns on your counseling and advocacy strategies in terms of problem assessment, goal setting, and interventions that take into account individual, couple, family, and tribal considerations.

Note: This is a graded discussion question. Your instructor will grade your discussion using the Scoring Guide accessed in the Resources and your grade will appear in the courseroom gradebook. You are still responsible for posting two substantial peer responses to other learners’ discussions.