Culturally Relevant Counseling: A Q&A With Daun Kwag, MA, NCC

Our culture shapes our identity, our way of life, and how we view ourselves and the world. As counselors, it is important to continuously develop our cultural competence and sensitivity in order to gain a deeper understanding of the people we serve. 

Daun Kwag, MA, NCC, moved to the United States from Korea as an adolescent and now works in a Korean American–owned private practice that primarily serves the Asian American population, many of whom are 1.5-, second-, or third-generation Korean Americans. She also counsels several Vietnamese American, Indian American, and biracial clients with a broad range of client presentations, including depression, anxiety, intergenerational trauma, childhood trauma, social anxiety, relationship issues, eating disorders, ethnic and racial identity, queer identity, and more.  

Kwag, who is a 2023 NBCC Foundation MFP Fellow, spoke with us about how our cultural identity affects mental health and why it’s imperative that counselors develop their cultural competence and sensitivity to gain a better understanding of clients from different cultural backgrounds. 

In what ways may a person’s cultural identity (race, ethnicity, immigration status, religion, socioeconomic background, or gender identity) impact or influence their mental health? 

A person’s mental health is inextricably linked to their cultural identities and experiences. I see clients who struggle in their relationships because of misunderstandings and microaggressions they experience from their romantic partners. My Korean American clients often struggle with feeling “Korean” enough or “American” enough and deal with shame with certain parts of their identity. Clients who have an immigration background or are children of immigrants often face cultural clashes with their parents and struggle with intergenerational conflict. A queer nonbinary Korean American client may experience depression and deep anger and disconnection from family because they do not fit into what they or their church believe is “right.” A client may begin experiencing burnout because of all the weekends they had to help with their family business in addition to pursuing their education, which makes them feel isolated from their peers and resentful of those who grew up in more financially stable families.  

What are some of the greatest challenges your multicultural clients face?  

For the Asian American Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) demographic, there is still a lot of stigma around mental health and mental health treatment within their own communities. Many also find it difficult to find counselors who demonstrate the knowledge and cultural humility to adequately consider how their cultural contexts may influence their mental health. If English is not their primary language, finding bilingual services can also be a challenge. I work with clients who have an immigration story, whether it is theirs or their parents/ancestors, and often this leads to intergenerational cultural and communication conflicts within the family system. Many AANHPI folks I have spoken to have also noted cost as a significant barrier. In addition, many of my clients hold a lifetime of experiences of covert and overt discrimination due to harmful systems of oppression that pervade our society.  

Are there any special skills you have or personal experiences that help with your work? 

I am bilingual and fluent in both Korean and English (spoken, written, read). While I do not conduct sessions in Korean, my Korean language skills help me to communicate with Korean-speaking parents of clients who are minors. It also allows me and my clients to use Korean words to describe an emotion or experience when English isn’t the best way to capture what they’re trying to convey.  

My personal experiences and identity as a 1.5-generation Korean American immigrant woman have given me firsthand exposure to many similar experiences that my clients have. I see this as a helpful starting point in connecting with a client and remain open to the likelihood that they navigated their experiences differently or made different meanings from them. My intersectional cultural identities and the ways they weaved into my personal life experiences often left me feeling invisible (yet hyper-visible) and just “wrong.” My identities and experiences have also given me unbelievable strength, courage, and creativity in discovering the various ways to feel belonging and be seen as all of me. My personal experiences have taught me how to contextualize my client’s stories and approach their struggles with curiosity and compassion rather than pathologizing them.    

How can counselors improve their cultural sensitivity and awareness to prepare for working with multicultural clients? 

Counselors must continue to educate themselves on different populations and groups they have less exposure to, and continuously challenge their preconceived notions that may essentialize any particular group or individual. Culture provides context and an opportunity to connect deeper with a client, and the counselor must be oriented in a way that allows them to receive their client’s unique story with humility and curiosity. Counselors can surround themselves with more diverse viewpoints and perspectives in their personal and professional lives. They can read or listen to literature by authors and speakers from diverse backgrounds, engage in critical conversations with friends and colleagues, and commit to intentionally bringing cultural conversations into their clinical sessions. 

As counselors, how can we advocate for these clients and help increase mental health equity for them? How can we help improve their situation? 

We can raise awareness of the current state of mental health care inequity for this population, create or support opportunities to fund mental health care for folks who cannot financially access it, and do more outreach into communities to bridge the gap in understanding what mental health and mental health services are. These are large systemic changes that need to be made and require us to be an even stronger community as we tackle these inequities.   

What advice would you give someone interested in counseling immigrants and/or refugees? 

Actively question what you have been taught is the “normal” way to conduct counseling. When working with immigrants and/or refugees, there may be several additional layers of consideration. What is their most urgent need right now? How does the person sitting in front of me relate to mental health? What additional supports (interpretation, legal, social) do we need to set them up for sustainable care? How does this person relate to me, their provider? How do I move away from looking at this client from a deficit-focused lens, a story that is often projected onto this population? Counseling immigrants and/or refugees calls for creativity, flexibility, and radical compassion. Lean on the community of professionals who are already doing this work, utilize a social justice and multicultural framework for understanding your client needs, and build in a self- and community-care system.  

Are there any resources you’d recommend to counselors who are interested in improving their cultural competency and sensitivity? 

Yes, I recommend the following books: Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong, Permission to Come Home by Dr. Jenny T. Wang, What My Bones Know by Stephanie Foo, My Grandmother’s Hands by Resmaa Menakem, The Pain We Carry by Natalie Gutierrez, and Homecoming by Thema Bryant. 

Daun Kwag, MA, NCC, is a doctoral student pursuing a PhD in counselor education and practice at Georgia State University. She received bachelor’s degrees in violin performance and English literature from Emory University and a master’s degree in mental health counseling and behavioral medicine from Boston University.