Developing Self-Awareness in Counseling Professionals

This paper identifies the importance of multicultural competency in counselors; (2) defines culture and self-identity to include subculture, constellation of privilege and/or the intersectionality of marginalization that occurs in every person; (3) identifies worldview as culturally defined and influenced, not a single issue; (4) acknowledges the importance for internship experience as a monitored hands-on experience for CITs to gain practice and supervision; (5) encourages counselors to identify their intersections to increase their awareness of intersectionality in a similar investigative practice and supervision environment; (6) succinctly summarizes and categorizes select identity models for developing multicultural competencies in counseling professionals; (7) identifies the need to shift competency model inward to develop self-competency and awareness; (8) Brief introduction of possible results of applying a self-awareness model adapted from cultural competent frameworks to CITs