Cultivating Multiculturally Competent Counselors Through Movies

Abstract

Confined by monocultural geographic features or encapsulated life experience, many counselor-training programs or trainees suffer from the lack of a multicultural environment, which could benefit students’ education. Recognizing the limitations in reality, the author introduces the use of movies to counterbalance the disadvantages, while maximizing students’ multicultural counseling competency. Aiming toward helping trainees vicariously reach the culmination of studies in counseling, this article addresses the use of cinemeducation in the context of cross-cultural counseling, via the application of qualitative research methodology. The theoretical underpinning of the movie project, the use of movies to augment students’ multicultural counseling opportunities outside classrooms, and students’ reactions are all discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• case study
• cinema
• cinemeducation
• counselor education
• culturally encapsulated
• teaching tool
• creativity in counseling

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Yih-Jiun Shen

Yih-Jiun Shen is an Associate Professor in the Department of Counseling and Guidance at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (formerly The University Texas-Pan American), Edinburg, Texas.