Building cultural empathy and deconstructing Whiteness in counselor education

Abstract

Counselor training that does not attend to dynamics of cultural differences and oppression can run the risk of promoting false empathy that serves the voyeuristic purpose of the counselor rather than achieving accurate empathy for the client. In this article, we discuss the differences between true and false empathy and how Whiteness, racial identity and culture, and classroom dynamics can impact the ability to engage in cultural empathy development. We present a model for cultural empathy training that attends to each of these dynamics.