Cultural Diversity and Required Training
First let me make our position on Cultural Diversity and required training very clear, then I'll move on to our stance on requiring Cultural Diversity CE hours.
Cultural Diversity and Required Training
At AMHP we totally support the traditional professional approach to understanding and taking into account a client's specific racial and cultural considerations. We need to be sensitive to the specific issues of the individual on all points.
This does not mean, however, that we should be required to affirm a mental illness as normal nor do we consider delusional conditions or sexual preferences to be legitimate cultural categories.
Our Stance on Required Cultural Diversity CE Hours
AMHP is firmly against the requirement of renewal CE hours for Cultural Diversity for the following reasons:
1. We recognize the real impossibility of training every licensed counselor in the nuances of every race and culture in the world.
Academia used to realize this point which is why we were trained in grad school on the techniques necessary to allow the client to share with us what we need to know about their situation. We were given basic interview techniques so that an impossible global education was not necessary.
2. There have been no legitimate complaints on cultural issues filed in the past 4 years (not to mention there would need to be an adequate volume of them to warrant a universal requirement). A new rule should address an existing problem, or we don't need a new rule!
3. The requirement is written utilizing broad language that allows almost any topic ("but not limited to") so if any topic qualifies, why do we need a requirement rule? The underlying subjectivity of topic selection negates its focus and therefore it's need to exist.
4. The rule is written in a manner which obviously favors highly contentious and divisive topics, and allows for the inclusion of future suspect topics which have not yet been created. This is normalization cloaked in a unity mantra at the expense of our profession's credibility.
It's a trojan horse category of hours intended to appeal to all licensees (who could possibly be against "cultural diversity"?) while promoting an agenda of topics not yet accepted by the main stream, larger majority of counselors.
Addressing the Counter Arguments
Proponents of this requirement will typically respond with:
1. "You don't have to take courses that you disagree with. Take Cultural Diversity courses that you do agree with."
2. "The DSM says it's legitimate."
3. Or failing that will move directly to pejoratives and character assassination with words like "racist", "fascist", "bigot", "blacklist" or any number of words ending in "-phobe". Threats to file complaints in an effort to have a license revoked for exercising free speech are common.
Our Response: We don't want the option of taking Cultural Diversity hours that we agree with; we don't want to be forced to take Cultural Diversity hours at all. We have serious issues with the current DSM in its various versions and specifically the manner in which it was developed and adopted so we do not recognize its absolute authority. (If you insist on using the DSM as your unquestionable touchstone then consider that the DSMTR5 has a voluminous section in it on cultural awareness and diversity for all to blindly follow. Why is that not sufficient? Why do we need a required CE for this?
Summary
At AMHP we are firmly in support of a properly trained counselor's grasp on cultural understanding through professional discussion techniques (academia, are you listening?).
We are NOT in favor of forcing 100% of licensed professionals who have already been trained in this area to take 3 hrs (12.5% of their required hours) every two years simply to satisfy a special interest faction's goal of normalizing conditions historically viewed as mental illness.
Got Something to Say?
These posts are based on the beliefs and personal experience of the post's author. Please feel free to leave your civil, constructive comments below. We try very hard to back up our statements with fact-based data and we ask you to do the same in your comments. You do not need to be logged in to leave a comment.
About the Author
Kathleen Mills is a fire-breathing, 33+ year veteran of the counseling world. People react in one of two ways when evil touches their lives: some retreat in fear, and some advance without pause to engage it. Kathleen falls firmly in the latter group. She owns and operates Life Tree Counseling in Frisco, TX, possesses a tireless work-ethic, and eagerly awaits your arrival into her growing army of warriors.
