Clinical Ethics & Transformative Cultural-Centered
Counseling
By Doug Greenlee, MARRCH Ethics Committee
There is much evidence that supports the ongoing efforts of MARRCH leadership,
MARRCH organizational members, MN state licensure agency members and related legal
representatives to implement a variety of educational reforms for clinical ethics and culturecentered counseling expectations for current and future licensed alcohol and drug counselors.
Unfortunately, there are some members of this community for whom the extent of their
multicultural counseling perspective remains mired within a ‘white privilege’ stance, evidencing
a cultural tunnel vision that resists further examination and discussion as part-and-parcel to the
larger community’s ongoing emphasis upon culture-centered counseling as an industry
standard.
What’s the Problem?
The professional multicultural education appears to have over-focused on educating
white LADC counselors about other non-white races or ethnic groups with similar social status
within a white-dominated community. The problem is that clinicians who claim white status are
not consistently encouraged to assess and discuss their social privileges to which they have had
access as a member of the dominant race within the U.S. culture, e.g. entitlement assumptions
and preferential treatment over non-whites or related ethnic groups.
Furthermore, it seems as if there is even less emphasis upon the whites to initiate more
equitable changes benefitting the greater culture. It is ironic that we, as counselors, embrace
the transformative dimensions of a recovering lifestyle but seem to lag behind when it comes
to the privilege and non-privilege-informed views of some of our counselors and clients.
Relate to Clinical Ethics?
As counselors, our professional education continues to emphasize our professional
responsibility to continue our own self-awareness and transformative change dynamics. We do
not have to do this alone: We have colleagues, supervisors, educators, counselors,
administrative leadership and other social support resources available to us.
In addition, we are expected to know and model/implement universal ethical values
such as, Do no harm to the client, Act in the best interest of the client, Respect client’s
autonomy to make choices, Support/initiate their ability to get their justice needs met and, of
course, maintain the alliance by our truthfulness as we work with our clients. How can we rise
to the expectations of these—and related—ethical practice values, if we are mired within a
privileged stance that has not been identified, assessed and discussed consistently as a vital
part of our self-awareness and duty to clinical practice ethical mandates.
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Relate to Clinical Practice?
Imagine a group therapy situation involving a white counselor who has a white privilege
culturally encapsulated perspective and who is also leading a multicultural chemical
dependency treatment group. How might s/he understand the plight of a non-white/ethnic
group member who continues to struggle with unbroken abstinence because of his/her past or
present encounters (e.g., stigma, prejudice, discrimination, racism) specifically associated with
persons embodying the white privilege perspective?
What to do?
First, let’s continue to provide multicultural educational opportunities that focus on
white status/privilege and non-white or related ethnic groups within our counselor and
provider systems. This could be an identified counselor education expectation that would guide
and balance the content of multicultural educational workshops to include white privilege
awareness in relation to relevant cultural information about other non-white/ethnic groups
who work within or receive services from the treatment community.
Second, let’s continue to provide for the LADC community research-based information
defining the characteristics of a white ‘culturally encapsulated counselor.’ As one example,
Corey, Corey and Callanan (2011) have identified several basic characteristics that culturally
encapsulated counselors demonstrate with frequency over time: 1) Limited set of assumptions
to define cultural reality (My culture not yours); 2) Insensitivity to or intolerant of others’
cultural variations (Your cultural ways are inferior to mine); 3) Accepts unreasoned
assumptions about others without proof or ignores disconfirming proof (Accepts stereotypes as
reality); 4) Unwilling to adapt and resists adaptive efforts by others (My way is the right way).
(p. 117)
Three, let’s continue to seek out and learn from established social resources who have
been successful at educating their respective communities about social privilege and nonprivilege dynamics and who also have created demonstrable, transformational-based attitudes
that evidence the community’s standard rather than belie an exception to it.
Your thoughts/experiences?
Let’s continue the discussion. Feel free to contact the MARRCH committee via website.
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