Multicultural Engagement

The Client Profile Case Study® allows students to develop and practice introductory skills for working with clients across more than just the visible racial/ethnic categories, and beyond a laundry list of identities, to understanding and working with the complexities of the intersectional client. Through the implementation of the Client Profile Case Study® students develop skills across three dimensions – process, conceptualization, and personalization, in alignment with the five skill clusters presented by Yuen and Lum (2010): context, problem identification, assessment, intervention, and evaluation.

Experiential Learning

The Client Profile Case Study® is problem based—there is no single correct answer; is project based—students are tasked with a series of assignments leading up to a final project, the case study presentation; and, is inquiry based—students must actively engage in the exploration of the client story, the client’s identities and presenting problems, and the assessments, interventions, and techniques they might possibly employ in working with the client.

Case Study Methodology

In the context of the Client Profile Case Study®, students create the story of the client based on the presented profile. Students are encouraged to create a story that is neither too complicated nor too simplistic. Students expand upon, uncover, and deepen the client story throughout the semester. In this way, the Client Profile Case Study® does not follow the traditional case study teaching method. Where it has the same purposes, it differs in creation and scope. The Client Profile Case Study®, though realistic, is not real. It does, however, aim for multidimensionality in its representation of clients through the intentional use of research and is created with enough detail that the student is able to provide a reasonable analysis of the case.

To the instructors who have implemented various versions of the Client Profile Case Study® and offered their feedback for improvement, I am ever so grateful! Thank you!

This exercise was adapted from

• • Portrie-Bethke, T. L. (2011). Cards of Life. In M. Pope, J. S. Pangelinan, & A. D. Coker (Eds.), Experiential activities for teaching multicultural competence in counseling (pp. 45-46). American Counseling Association.

This app was developed by Liquid Technologies

• • The team at LiqTeq were responsive and amazing in taking my idea from “What if?” to “I did it!”