Examining the relationship between counseling skills and gender perceptions and multicultural competencies of psychological counselors

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between counselors' counseling skills and their gender perceptions and multicultural competencies. The data of the study were obtained from 311 counselors working in public and private institutions in different provinces of Turkey in the 2023-2024 academic year. In this study, "Personal Information Form", "Counseling Skills Scale", "Gender Roles Attitude Scale" and "Multicultural Counseling Competencies Scale" were used as data collection tools. In the analysis of the data, independent groups t test was used to understand the differences, Pearson correlation analysis was used to understand the relationship between the variables, and regression analysis was used to determine the extent to which the variables explain counseling skills. IBM SPSS 26.0 program was used for data analysis. When the results of the research are examined, it is seen that female counselors have both significantly higher counseling skills and more egalitarian attitudes than male counselors, counselors with bachelor's degrees have higher counseling skills than counselors with master's degrees, and counselors with master's degrees have both a more egalitarian attitude and higher levels of awareness than counselors with bachelor's degrees. At the same time, it was concluded that counselors who took courses on multicultural counseling exhibited a more egalitarian attitude than those who did not take courses, both gender roles attitudes and multicultural counseling competencies of counselors differed significantly according to the number of counseling sessions and the number of counseling sessions with a supervisor, and both gender roles attitudes and multicultural counseling competencies predicted counseling skills in a statistically significant and negative direction.