TPC Journal V8, Issue 4- FULL ISSUE

The Professional Counselor | Volume 8, Issue 4 323 as the CCCI-R (LaFromboise et al., 1991) or the WAI-S (Tracey & Kokotovic, 1989) in session to facilitate discussions with clients. For example, if counselors see that their client strongly disagrees with the CCCI-R assessment question 20, “My counselor acknowledges and is comfortable with cultural differences,” counselors can utilize this as a discussion point to address any cultural differences that may be interfering with the counseling process. Furthermore, in this study, positive relationships were shown between clients’ and counselors’ perceptions of counselors’ multicultural competence and the working alliance. Given these associations, counselors are encouraged to self-reflect and explore how their clients view the relationship between the working alliance and multicultural competence. Slone and Owen (2015) explored the relationship between the effects of the therapeutic relationship, counselors’ level of comfort in session, and the systematic alliance on client outcomes between counselors and clients. Multilevel model analysis revealed that client outcome improved when counselors checked in with clients about how the therapeutic relationship was going, when counselors had a high comfort level in session, and when clients had perceived interpersonal networks that aligned with the goals and tasks in counseling. Thus, counselors are encouraged to check in with clients about their views at multiple times throughout the counseling process. For example, CITs can ask clients probing points early on to promote discussion on the working alliance and multicultural competence, such as, “What are you looking for in a counseling relationship?” or “Please tell me a little bit about your culture.” Moreover, counselors can check in with a client mid-session and ask, “How has our counseling relationship been going?” or “What would improve our counseling relationship?” This study also highlighted the importance of exploring what has already been working for clients before coming to counseling. The therapeutic relationship has been shown to have the most explained variance in client outcomes (Norcross, 2011; Wampold & Imel, 2015); however, in this investigation, it was found that 80% of the variance in client outcomes after the third session was predetermined. Given that close to 80% of the variance in posttest scores were accounted for by OQ 45.2 first-session scores on client outcomes after controlling for social desirability responses, counselors are encouraged to explore what coping strategies clients are already using that have been helpful with their clients’ presenting issues during the first session. In addition, counselor educators can consider that three weeks of counseling may not be enough time to show clinically significant change in client outcomes. Furthermore, three weeks in counseling may not be enough time to show how the working alliance and CITs’ multicultural competence may influence client outcomes. Lastly, given that there was a positive relationship between CITs’ social desirability scores and their ratings of their multicultural competence, counselor educators who supervise CITs are encouraged to explore their supervisees’ expectations and comfort in discussing developing multicultural competence. Limitations and Suggestions for Future Research The first limitation is that the multicultural competence and working alliance assessments were collected in a cross-sectional manner, limiting the results to a singular time point. Second, the generalizability to populations other than novice counselors or clients within a university setting is low. Third, at the time data collection for this investigation was completed, there was not a validated formative assessment developed to explore the updated social justice framework based on the new MSJCC competencies, so the instrument used was based on the Multicultural Competence Tripartite Model. Despite the limitations from this investigation, the use of a social desirability scale, an emphasis on both clients’ and CITs’ perceptions, and the study’s implications contribute to the empirical research on multicultural competence and the working alliance.