Literature Study: Counselors' Multicultural Competence in LGBT Counseling

Multicultural competence in counseling is one of the essential competencies in the process of successful counseling because it can understand counselees with various cultural backgrounds. Cultural differences between counselors and counselees appear in the counseling process, especially with LGBT people. The LGBT group is still an important issue in society because it contains pros and cons. On the other hand, counselors should not pass judgment on the counselees they are dealing with. This article aims to describe the multicultural competencies that a counselor should have in dealing with LGBT counselees along with approaches that can be applied in LGBT cases. The results show that the multicultural competencies that counselors should have in LGBT counseling are (1) accepting the situation of the counselee, (2) having a good understanding of the counselee, (3) applying good counselor values, (4) being able to explain the counselor's point of view well so that the client can receive information well, (5) being able to apply counseling approaches well and empower the client's potential. Counselors' multicultural competence in LGBT counseling helps counselors focus on the counselee's identity, personality, environment, and so on.