Infusing Multicultural and Social Justice Counseling Competencies: Reflection on Establishing Mandarin Counseling Services

Abstract

Due to the unique needs for and barriers to help-seeking among Asian international students, mental health services must attend to both culturally specific and linguistic-specific services. This paper describes successful efforts to establish counseling services in Mandarin Chinese in a large Midwestern university counseling training clinic with a commitment to multiculturalism and social justice. We first discuss the benefits of linguistic-specific mental health services, as well as the establishment of Mandarin counseling services and the Mandarin Mental Wellness Counseling Group. For the 8-week Mandarin Mental Wellness Counseling Group, we include a table with a summary of our agenda and interventions for readers to replicate and implement such a group. We also share considerations for supervision that is only available in English. We then discuss the rewards and challenges of establishing Mandarin counseling services. We conclude with recommendations for future efforts in practice, training, and research.