Cultural Sensitive Counseling - Essay Example

? Cultural Sensitive Counseling A. Cultural Sensitive Interview In order to gain the confidence and acceptance of a client, the counselor is requiredto look at the client in a manner that corresponds with that client “or her belief system” (Day 2008, p. 72). In this regard, a cultural sensitive interview endeavors to illicit information informing the counselor of the client’s cultural background and by extension the client’s belief system (Day 2008, p. 72). Ultimately, the counselor comes into the interview well informed of cultures and then conducts an interview with the aim of discovering where the client is positioned in terms of culture and subcultures (Day 2008, p. 72). The ultimate goal is for the counselor to be “culturally sensitive” in that he/she “is aware of, shows recognition of, demonstrates some knowledge of, and expresses an interest in the client’s ethnic identity and cultural background” (Day 2008, p. 72). This is very important because conduct in one culture may be more distressing in another culture. For example, a Filipina student going against her parents’ choice of major may be more of an issue than for an American student. In other words, there is no universal prescription for dealing with all human beings’ problems (Day 2008, p. 72). Cultural sensitive interviews will help the counselor obtain the information necessary for narrowing the issues down to a specific culture. Therefore a cultural sensitive interview will begin by first determining the client’s first language. Language questions will seek to determine whether or not the client’s family or home speaks another language or languages and what language or languages are used at home. The client’s feelings about whether his or her language is “standard English or nonstandard English” will also be queried at a cultural sensitive interview (Day 2008, p. 73). Secondly, the client will be questioned about family roles. Essentially, the counselor will attempt to determine what is expected of children within the family and how those expectations are modified throughout childhood to adulthood. Other questions about family roles will include information about whether or not adult children have to take care of their parents; the degree of authority that parents have over their adult children and adolescent children’s decisions; whether or not parents are strict and if the client follows their parents own “parenting style” (Day 2008, p. 73). The client will be questioned about sex/gender distinctions and roles. Specifically, the counselor attempts to determine cultural beliefs relative to sexes and the degree to which those beliefs and distinctions are reflected within the client’s family. The counselor will also need to ascertain the client’s own feelings about those prescribed differences and roles. The counselor will also endeavor to obtain information about sexual orientation. More specifically, the counselor will attempt to determine the degree to which the client’s sexual orientation or the sexual orientation of others affects the client. Information about what the client learned about sexual orientation from the family and whether or not the client’s own concept of sexual orientation has been refuted (Day 2008, p. 73). Another area of query includea information about the client’s independence. Specifically, the counselor will be required to determine if the client firmly believes in “freedom from others’ influence”, or if co-dependence within the family or the community ranks higher (Day 2008, p. 73). Questions about the spirituality and its influence on the client are also important. How the client’s culture defines success and how conflict is dealt with by the client’s culture are also important questions. Cultural and family history and its influence on the client are also important questions in a cultural sensitive interview. Questions about money, more specifically class status, economic objectives and the importance of wealth to the client’s family and culture are important areas of query. Finally, questions about acculturation or more specifically, how the client’s family’s view of themselves in relation to their country of residence will be asked (Day 2008, p. 74). B. Integrating Multicultural Skills and Recommendations Integrating multicultural skills and recommendations into a counselor’s own personal theory of counseling will require taking the position that attention should be focused on the client in terms of social, historical and environmental factors. The fact is, clients belong to diverse groups that are distinguishable from others such as women, blacks, homosexuals and ethnic/national groups (Day 2008, p. 102). In adopting a personal theory of counseling the counselor will best serve the client by taking an “ethnographic perspective” (Day 2008, p. 104). An ethnographic perspective means learning how the client’s specific gender, ethnic group or culture looks at the world, regards right and wrong, prioritizes issues, views circumstances and health and establishes objectives (Day 2008, p. 104). The counselor must also alter his/her own beliefs in order to ensure that the client has confidence in the counselor. In other words, the counselor must take the position that there is more than one view of the world and specific problems and that no view is more important than the other (Day 2008, p. 104). A feminist approach can also be useful for negotiating trust and confidence. The counselor is therefore required to come across as not only aware of, but empathetic to the gender issues that prevail (Day 2008, p. 105). In this regard, “consciousness raising” could be useful for gaining the confidence of a female client who had previously suffered some degree of sexism prevalent in some cultures (Day 2008, p. 107). The counselor will be instrumental in helping the client understand the significance of freedom of individual choice and what she should permit and resist and how to overcome cultural and gender distinctions (Day 2008, p. 108). C. Plan for Becoming More Gender and Culture Sensitive The first step in a plan toward becoming more gender and culture sensitive would be in taking a class in professional ethics and multicultural issues. A study conducted by Cannon (2010) confirms that counselors who took a multicultural and professional ethics class were more likely to identify gender and racial intolerance. Essentially, Cannon (2010) conducted study using 54 students from universities in Northeastern universities. The respondents were primarily Caucasian and females. Cannon used a computerized REST test which tests the respondents’ ability to recognize ethical infractions in the school system. A second test was conducted using a ANOVA analysis. The ANOVA analysis was conducted dividing the students into three groups: those who had taken at least one course in multicultural issues or professional ethics, those who had taken more than one course and a group that had not taken any courses in multicultural issues. The results indicated that students who had not taken any courses had students who had taken at more than one course were better able to identify cultural and gender issues than students in the other two groups. Students who had taken at least one course were better able to identify cultural and gender issues than students in the group who had not taken any courses (Cannon 2010). The second step in the counselor’s plan to becoming more gender and culture sensitive would be to develop multicultural counseling competencies. It would therefore be appropriate to adopt the conceptual framework developed by Sue and Pedersen as reported by Carter (2008). According to Carter, this framework is the most popular for helping counselors meet the needs of multicultural students. The frame work includes three specific elements. First the counselor develops cultural awareness and beliefs in that the counselor is aware of his/her own biases and how those biases can impact counseling. Secondly, the counselor acquires cultural knowledge or more specifically, knowledge of the student’s culture, his/her view of the world and what is expected of the counseling. Finally, the counselor develops cultural skills which entails the ability to ensure that counseling services are sensitive to culture and views culture as relevant (Carter 2008). Drawing on Portman’s (2009) advice on ensuring that counseling becomes more cultural sensitive, the counselor should take ten preparatory measures. First the counselor should harvest information about the backgrounds of all students matriculated in the relevant school. The counselor should then become acquainted with the cultural diversity of all persons concerned including parents, teachers, students, the surrounding community and administrators. Thirdly, the counselor should engage in communications with the community and families relative to cultural differences. Fourthly, the counselor should obtain additional education on cultural abilities and language skills. Fifthly, the counselor should become “culturally creative” (Portman 2009, 23). Sixthly, the counselor should ensure that resources are accessible. The seventh measure is to help students of diverse cultures acquire social skills. The eighth measure is to help those students acquire “social mediation skills” (Portman 2009, p. 23). As a ninth step the counselor should lend support and encouragement to the cultural diversity in the school. Finally, the counselor should be in a position to provide information for families that are culturally diverse (Portman 2009). In line with Bemak and Chung’s (2008) idea of the cultural sensitive counselor, the next step in the plan of action is to become an advocate as much as counselor. Essentially, this means taking on the role of a “multicultural/social justice” advocate and becoming an “organizational change” agent (Bemak and Chung 2008, p. 382). In order to effectively execute any of these plans it will be necessary to improve the counselor’s own belief in his/her capacity to become more cultural sensitive. In this regard, the counselor can accomplish this by improving his/her multicultural self-efficacy. In a study conducted by (Holcomb-McCoy 2008) of 81 counselors, research findings indicate that school counselors with a greater degree of multicultural self-efficacy have a greater chance of believing in their own ability understand culture diversity and are therefore more apt to support and help students (Holcomb-McCoy 2008). D. Non-Academic Skills Since culture sensitive counseling involves dealing with diversity, there are a number of non-academic measures that the counselor can take to enhance his/her understanding of students’ culture. First as counselors we can “do our homework” (Day 2008, p. 98). This means learning about the popular nuances of those with whom we work. This can be accomplished by reading books or attending workshops (Day 2008, 98). Counselors can simply “ask questions” of our clients (Day 2008, p. 98). These questions are designed to shed some light on the client’s values, boundaries and “the nonnegotiables with which they function” (Day 2008, p. 98). We also need to appreciate the fact that we are unique too. In other words in accepting the uniqueness of our culturally diverse clients, we must also accept that we too are unique and that there are various ways for perceiving the world and dealing with problems (Day 2008, p. 98). As counselors we can adopt a positive regard and take the position that despite cultural differences humans can share common emotions. We need to remember that it is human rather than cultural to be frightened, to want to be accepted, to be hurt, to be rejected, to love and to care. Realizing and accepting these common human emotions will help counselors to relate to their clients (Day 2008, p. 98). Just as important, the counselor’s non-academic skills will involve realizing and accepting the diversity of culture. This means acquiring information relative to these diversities and the “skill to apply that knowledge” (Day 2008, p. 99). In other words, the counselor not only acquires information, but also masters the ability to use that information effectively in the counseling process where cultural sensitive issues are present. Bibliography Bemak, F. and Chung, R. (2008) “New Professional Roles and Advocacy Strategies for School Counselors: A Multicultural/Social Justice Perspective to Move Beyond the Nice Counselor Syndrome.” Journal of Counseling and Development, Vol. 86: 372-382. Cannon, E. “Measuring Ethical Sensitivity to Racial and Gender Intolerance in Schools.” Journal of School Counseling, Vol. 8(2): 1-22. Carter, S. (2008) “Multicultural Counseling Programs.” Research Starters: Academic Topic Overviews. 1-8. Day, S. X, (2008). Theory and design in counseling and psychotherapy. (2nd ed). Boston, Houghton Miffon. Holcomb-McCoy, C. (2008) “School Counselors’ Multicultural Self-Efficacy: A Preliminary Investigation”. Professional School Counseling, Vol. 11(3): 166-178. Portman, T. (2009) “Faces of the Future: School Counselors as Cultural Mediators.” Journal of Counseling and Development, Vol. 87: 21-27. Read More