Cross-Cultural Supervision: Guiding the Conversation toward Race and Ethnicity

Abstract

It is expected that over the next 50 years, the population of the United States will become increasingly racially diverse, and that this racial and ethnic diversity will be reflected in client populations as well (Sue & Sue, 1999). Much of the counseling literature of the last 2 decades has addressed the need for multiculturally competent counselors, and has detailed key dimensions of multicultural counseling competence (Arredondo, et al, 1996; Sue, Arredondo, & McDavis, 1992). While considerable attention has been given to cultural competence in the counseling arena, an area that has been addressed fcir less frequently is cross-cultural competence in supervision. Bernard and Goodyear (1998) defined supervision as an evaluative relationship between a senior and junior member of the counseling profession whose purpose is to enhance the professional functioning of the supervisee (p. 4). Their definition portrays the senior member of the supervision dyad as responsible for directing and nurturing the development of the supervisee's skills and professional identity. It is clear that in a context of increasing client diversity, an essential feature of supervision would include the supervisor's ability to raise and guide analyses of race, ethnicity, and culture with the supervisee as part of the critical process of honing the supervisee's multicultural skill.