Multicultural Counseling Competencies for Working with International Students

Abstract

Counseling international students inevitably involves counseling across cultures. Even in the rare cases where counselors are from the same country as international students, it should not be assumed that their worldviews are similar. It should also not be assumed that because clients are international students, that they will experience problems of adjustment that require counseling intervention. Defining any group according to specific characteristics can lead to assumptions about counseling issues and appropriate interventions. Consequently, counselors require a repertoire of multicultural competencies for working with international students (Arthur, 1997; Sue & Sundberg, 1996). Multicultural counseling competencies help counselors to consider the commonalties between students who are culturally diverse while at the same time respecting the unique circumstances and counseling needs of individual students.