Introducing Multicultural Competency Development in Counselor Education Screening

As gatekeepers to the profession, counselor educators maintain a responsibility of selecting and training future counselors who possess skills necessary to becoming effective counselors. Typical methods of screening may not reveal personal qualities such as interpersonal style, attitude, self-awareness, and disposition. This paper provides a description of an innovative screening procedure that integrates an introduction of multicultural awareness and competence to assess personal qualities of candidates. Emergent themes from student feedback included reflections on feelings and reflections on process, and implications for counselor educators are given.