Applying the ADDRESSING Model to Korean Multicultural Counseling

Applying the ADDRESSING Model to Korean Multicultural Counseling

Korea has transformed its identity into a multicultural society. As a result, Korean counselors need to be competent in multicultural counseling. The purpose of this article is to describe an application of the ADDRESSING model to Korean multicultural counseling. The ADDRESSING model is an acronym of ten cultural influences: Age and generational influence, developmental Disabilities, Disabilities acquired later in life, Religion and spiritual orientation, Ethnic and racial identity, Socioeconomic status, Sexual orientation, Indigenous heritage, National origin, and Gender. The ADDRESSING model could facilitate the counselors to conceptualize the clients’ difficulties more accurately and bring more awareness of cultural influences in counseling relationships. Using this model, the counselors could develop multicultural awareness and competence, which might result in more effective multicultural counseling. This paper describes Korean cultural factors for each cultural influence that Korean counselors should consider for practice and suggests a potential multicultural counseling model for Korean counselors.