| Course | CCMH 506 Personality Theories and Counseling Models (CCMH/506) |
|---|---|
| Week | 6 |
| Paper type | Counseling theory application |
| Length | about 1,182 words, 4 double-spaced pages plus title page and references |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | University of Phoenix |
| Program | MS in Clinical Mental Health Counseling |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for CCMH 506 Week 6
"Twice as Good" Is Not a Distortion: Multicultural, Social Justice and Feminist Lenses on Alana's Perfectionism
[Student Name]
University of Phoenix
CCMH/506: Personality Theories and Counseling Models
Week 6 Assignment
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
The clinic, the client and all details are composites written for a model paper; competencies, theories and research findings come from the sources listed.
Over five weeks I have applied counseling models to Alana Brooks's perfectionism and depression. This week's approaches ask me to look back at that work and at myself.
Looking at Myself
I am a white man in my twenties from a middle-class family in Scottsdale, and I am Alana's counselor at a university clinic. My identity shaped what I noticed. In the cognitive work, I first treated her fear that one typo would end her job as a distortion. I did not ask enough about what it is like to be one of two Black paralegals at her firm, or whether she had seen colleagues of color judged more harshly. Those are not small omissions, and they show how a counselor's identity can quietly narrow what he thinks to ask.
The Original Competencies
Sue et al. (1992) proposed multicultural counseling competencies organized around three areas: how well counselors recognize the values and blind spots they bring from their own culture, their grasp of how clients from other cultures see the world and their ability to develop culturally appropriate intervention strategies. Within every area they spelled out the attitudes, the knowledge and the practical skills a counselor needs, and the three authors urged counseling to treat these competencies as a baseline in training and practice.
Applying the first area, I recognized my assumption that hard work is rewarded fairly, an assumption my own experience supports and Alana's does not. Applying the second, I asked Alana how she understands her mother's message. She said, "My mom wasn't being harsh. She was trying to protect me from a world that would look for reasons to count me out."
Social Justice Competencies
Ratts et al. (2016) revised the competencies as the multicultural and social justice counseling competencies. They described a framework in which counselors and clients each hold privileged and marginalized identities that shape the relationship, and four domains of development: counselor self-awareness, client worldview, the counseling relationship and counseling and advocacy interventions. They urged counselors to intervene not only with individuals but also at interpersonal, institutional, community and policy levels.
In our relationship, I hold privilege as a white man and as the counselor; Alana holds marginalized identities as a Black woman. That difference can make it harder for her to tell me when I have missed something. I named it directly and invited her to correct me, which she did the following week.
The Client's Worldview
Alana's perfectionism has costs, but it also reflects a realistic reading of her environment and a family strategy for survival. Her mother faced discrimination as a nurse's aide, and Alana watched her work twice as hard for half the recognition. Being flawless felt like protection. Treating that strategy as simply irrational would repeat the dismissal Alana fears.
Alana's inner critic carries her mother's protective wisdom alongside the cost of never resting.
A Feminist Lens
Brown (2018) described feminist therapy as an approach that attends to power, both in clients' lives and in the therapy relationship, sees personal distress as connected to social conditions, emphasizes an egalitarian relationship and aims at empowerment. Contemporary feminist therapy considers how gender intersects with race, class and other identities.
Through this lens, Alana's perfectionism appears partly as a response to the double scrutiny Black women often describe at work, judged both for their race and their gender. Being told she was "too intense" echoes stereotypes that label Black women as angry or excessive. An egalitarian relationship means sharing my reasoning, inviting her expertise about her own life and making decisions about treatment together.
Does Cultural Adaptation Matter?
Griner and Smith (2006) pooled seventy-six studies testing mental health treatments tailored to a cultural group. Adapted interventions produced moderate improvements over unadapted ones, and interventions designed for a specific cultural group were more effective than those for mixed groups. Treatment offered in the language a client grew up speaking, for those whose home language was not English, helped most of all.
For Alana, adaptation means bringing race and gender into the conceptualization, using examples from her life and community and respecting the strengths in her family's strategies. It also means asking her, not assuming, which parts of her identity matter most in a given moment.
Revising Earlier Work
I revisited her thought records. Instead of "one typo won't matter," her balanced thought became: "I may be scrutinized more, and my record shows I meet that standard. I can protect my reputation without rechecking everything." I also asked whether she would like to discuss race in our sessions; she said yes, and that no counselor had asked before.
Talking About Race in Session
Inviting discussion of race changed our sessions. Alana described being asked by a new attorney whether she was the receptionist, being praised as "so articulate" and being the only person whose lunch breaks a manager commented on. She had never told her former partner, a white man, about most of these moments, because she feared he would think she was oversensitive. Hearing herself describe them in sequence, she said, made her perfectionism make sense to her for the first time, not as a flaw but as armor.
What the Armor Costs
Understanding the armor does not mean leaving it on forever. Alana and I talked about which parts protect her and which parts only exhaust her. Reviewing a filing carefully protects her; rereading an internal email five times does not. Accepting her mother's wisdom while choosing where to rest became a theme that joined the cognitive, behavioral and multicultural work.
Gender and Relationships
The feminist lens also reached her relationships. Alana had absorbed the idea that she needed to make herself smaller to be lovable, quieter and less ambitious, and her former partner's complaint reinforced it. Exploring where that message came from, including media images and church teachings about women's roles, helped her consider what she actually wants in a partner, someone who welcomes her intensity rather than asking her to shrink.
Advocacy
Advocacy may include supporting Alana in finding mentors. She discovered a regional association of Black legal professionals and attended a meeting, where she met paralegals and attorneys who understood her experience. At an institutional level, if she chose, I could help her think through raising concerns about workload expectations, though any action must be hers.
Limits and Ongoing Work
I cannot fully understand Alana's experience, and I will make mistakes. Supervision with a counselor of color and continued reading help, but humility matters most. When I misread something, the repair matters more than the error: naming it, asking what she needed and adjusting. Alana told me that watching me admit a mistake was itself useful, since she had rarely seen anyone in authority do it without defensiveness.
Conclusion
Multicultural, social justice and feminist approaches changed my work with Alana. They showed me that her perfectionism is both a burden and a wise response to real conditions, that my own identity shaped what I noticed and that help includes connection and advocacy beyond the session.
References
Brown, L. S. (2018). Feminist therapy (2nd ed.). American Psychological Association.
Griner, D., & Smith, T. B. (2006). Culturally adapted mental health intervention: A meta-analytic review. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training, 43(4), 531-548. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-3204.43.4.531
Ratts, M. J., Singh, A. A., Nassar-McMillan, S., Butler, S. K., & McCullough, J. R. (2016). Multicultural and social justice counseling competencies: Guidelines for the counseling profession. Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development, 44(1), 28-48. https://doi.org/10.1002/jmcd.12035
Sue, D. W., Arredondo, P., & McDavis, R. J. (1992). Multicultural counseling competencies and standards: A call to the profession. Journal of Counseling & Development, 70(4), 477-486. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1556-6676.1992.tb01642.x
What the CCMH 506 Week 6 instructions ask
In the sixth week of CCMH 506, students commonly study multicultural and feminist approaches to counseling. Prompts typically ask students to explain multicultural counseling competencies, describe social justice and advocacy roles, outline feminist principles such as attention to power, gender socialization and an egalitarian relationship and apply these approaches to a client. Some versions ask students to examine their own cultural identity and its effect on the counseling relationship. Describe the client's worldview and context, reflect honestly on your own identity and privileges, show how the approaches change assessment and intervention and identify advocacy steps beyond the session. Say how earlier work with the client might change in light of these approaches, and cite scholarly sources in APA style.
How this CCMH 506 Week 6 example is built
Looking back at his work with Alana Brooks, Owen Whitaker applies multicultural, social justice and feminist lenses. The original multicultural competencies ask him to examine his own assumptions as a white man, understand Alana's worldview and adapt his interventions. The multicultural and social justice competencies add attention to privilege and marginalization in the counseling relationship and to advocacy at institutional levels. A meta-analysis finds that culturally adapted interventions improve outcomes. Brown's feminist therapy frames Alana's perfectionism as partly a response to real pressures on Black women at work. Owen revises earlier balanced thoughts, invites discussion of race in session and supports Alana in seeking a mentor network of Black legal professionals.
CCMH 506 Week 6 grading rubric: where the points go
Multicultural and feminist papers earn credit for honest self-reflection, accurate use of competency frameworks and interventions that address context as well as the individual. Instructors look for the counselor's own identity and potential biases to be examined, for the client's worldview to be described in her own terms, for competency frameworks and feminist principles to be applied specifically and for advocacy to be considered. Credit goes to recognizing how earlier interventions may have overlooked context and to research on culturally adapted care. Generic statements about respecting diversity lose points, as do self-reflections that crowd out the client; APA style applies to citations and references.
CCMH 506 Week 6 help: mistakes to avoid
Students often write about multicultural counseling in general terms, promising to respect diversity without examining their own identity or the client's specific experiences. Another common weakness is treating culture as a fact about the client while ignoring the counselor's culture and power. Some papers apply feminist ideas only to gender, overlooking how race, class and gender intersect. Others stop at the session without considering advocacy. Reflect honestly on your identity, describe the client's worldview in her words, apply competencies concretely, consider intersecting identities and name advocacy steps. A tutor can read your self-reflection and check that it stays honest without becoming the center of the paper or the session.
Related CCMH 506 sample papers
Other CCMH 506 week samples
- CCMH 506 Week 1: Psychodynamic and Adlerian Models
- CCMH 506 Week 2: Person-Centered and Existential
- CCMH 506 Week 3: Behavioral Therapy
- CCMH 506 Week 4: Cognitive Behavioral Therapies
- CCMH 506 Week 5: Interpersonal and Attachment-Based
- CCMH 506 Week 7: Family Systems Theories
- CCMH 506 Week 8: Personal Theory of Counseling
More MS in Clinical Mental Health Counseling sample papers
CCMH 506 Week 6 questions, answered
What does CCMH 506 Week 6 usually cover?
Multicultural, social justice and feminist counseling, including competencies, self-awareness, power and advocacy.
Where can I find a free CCMH 506 Week 6 sample paper?
The CCMH 506 Week 6 multicultural and feminist paper on one client's perfectionism is printed above, free.
What are the multicultural counseling competencies?
Expectations that counselors know their own biases, learn how clients see the world and build skills that fit clients' cultures.
What does feminist therapy emphasize?
Attention to power, gender and intersecting identities, an egalitarian relationship and the links between personal problems and social conditions.
Do culturally adapted interventions work better?
A meta-analysis found that culturally adapted mental health interventions improved outcomes compared with unadapted ones.
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