Effective Multicultural Supervision for a Culturally Diverse Country.
Living in a country based on the "salad bowl" of cultures philosophy, it is necessary for mental health professionals to be competent in providing effective counseling to heterogeneous clientele. Multicultural counseling ensures that professional counselors will deliver services matching the clients' needs, resulting in valuable treatment. Individuals wishing to become a counselor need guidance in multicultural counseling beyond the instruction given in a classroom. This can be accomplished during supervision from a multiculturally competent supervisor. Effective Multicultural Supervision for a Culturally Diverse Country As the population of the United States of America becomes increasingly diverse with more individuals immigrating to this country than ever before, the mental health field must be prepared to provide optimal services to this diverse population. According to the United States Census Bureau (2016) the estimated race of the population for 2014 was as follows: 62.1% would be identified as White, 17.4% identified as Hispanic or Latino, 13.2% identified as Black or African American, 5.4% identified as Asian, and the remaining 1.9% would be identified as Native Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, other Pacific Islander, or being of two or more races. The Census Bureau (2016) also estimated that in 2014, females would comprise 50.8% of the population, whereas males would comprise 49.2% Approximately 23.1% of the 2014 population was estimated to be aged eighteen or younger, and 76.9% would be aged over nineteen (United States Census Bureau, 2016) Finally, the Census Bureau (2016) estimated that in 2014, 14.8% of the population would be considered to be living in poverty, with the medium household income to be $53,482. This exemplifies the salad bowl analogy often used to describe the United States because there is not a single type of American, but rather the country prides itself on a variety of individuals from diverse backgrounds (different races, ethnicities, religions, genders, education, ages, language, socioeconomic statuses, and sexual orientation) coming together to form the larger community. Therefore, mental health professionals in this country must be well versed in the various aspects of providing exceptional counseling to an assorted clientele. There is not a "one size fits all" counseling approach, and it is imperative that professional counselors adequately prepare to assist clients from heterogeneous backgrounds. This process, commonly referred to as multicultural counseling, occurs when two or more individuals from different cultures to come together during