Counseling Practice Card Deck: Racial Issues

Description: 

Often when I was practicing my counseling skills, I noticed I learned and improved significantly more when I practiced mock counseling rather than studying books. This card deck aims to help players practice mock counseling and their cultural humility by getting players experience with the some of the most common issues clients come in with in relation to their race and culture. This game works best in collaboration as although there can be teams competing against each other, the name of the game is ultimately improving counseling skills and cultural humility as the most important aspect of the game is the debriefing after a session so that everyone learns and gets better. The given scenarios range from long talked about unsolved discriminating topics like the prejudices Arab Americans have been enduring since 2001 (Zogby, 2001), to under represented topics such as the mixed race negative stigma where only 4/10 people thought of mixed race relationships positively (Bialik, 2017), to in the end, not only shine light on these topics but to give counselors more diverse practice.

Guidelines:

-2-10 players 

-2 ways to play

 -Peaceful Mode: (Typically played if there is an odd number of players) There is only one team with 1 counselor (objective is to practice their approach/focus that is listed on the card), 1 client (objective is to not make it too easy for the counselor while acting out their situation given by the card), and the rest are observers all (objective is to work together to figure out the counselors approach/focus). Optional timer per session. And then after the session everyone will debrief, mostly the observer though should give the most feedback. 

-Competitive Mode: (Typically played if there is an even number of players) There is two teams, and each team volunteers one member of their team to play counselor (objective is to practice their approach/focus that is listed on the card ) while the other team volunteers one member of their team to play the client (objective is to not make it too easy for the counselor while acting out their situation given by the card) and the teams alternate roles, while the rest of the members of their team are observers (objective is to work together to figure out the counselors approach/focus). A team earns a point when their observers guess the counselor's approach/focus. The teams can choose if the observers are allowed to guess during or after the session, where if during the session then the counselor and client would finish their session still. Each team has one guess per session. Optional timer per session. And then after the session everyone will debrief, mostly the observer though should give the most feedback. 

-50 cards 

-25 for the counselor role, 25 for the client role

References

Culture-centered counseling. www.counseling.org. (n.d.). https://www.counseling.org/publications/counseling-today-magazine/article-archive/article/legacy/culture-centered-counseling 

Marquette University. (2025, August 5). Cultural diversity in counseling: Challenges and opportunities. Marquette University Online. https://online.marquette.edu/counseling/blog/cultural-diversity-in-counseling 

Bialik, K. (2017, June 12). Key facts about race and marriage, 50 years after loving v. Virginia. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2017/06/12/key-facts-about-race-and-marriage-50-years-after-loving-v-virginia/ 

Zogby, J. J., lfb. (2025, April 17). Profiling and pride: Arab American attitudes and behavior since September 11. Arab American Institute. https://www.aaiusa.org/library/profiling-and-pride-arab-american-attitudes-and-behavior-since-september-11

And the Sue et al. chapters in MC Homework 6 !!