Gender Issues and Multicultural Issues in Counseling - Essay Example

Gender counseling issues and multicultural counseling issues have in common patients that chose their doctor based on gender or culture. An example would be a female rape victim would likely chose a woman counselor (Ogunfowora and Drapeau 2008:93). Similarly a specific culture might seek out a counselor from their own culture. The first reason for this similarity is comfort. A female, and even a male, rape victim might feel that a woman would be more sympathetic to their plight. Cultural differences are also why individuals seek out their own culture’s counselors.

An example would be an African woman would not seek counseling from a Caucasian American. A middle class American woman would not understand the horrors of Rwanda. Multicultural and gender are usually the basis for counselor’s choice.Another counseling issue is the generalization of gender or race. Women are not all the same, but often grouped together despite the different roles of women in diverse races (Pope-Davis 2001:10). The problems addressed by a Latina woman, will not be the same for an African American woman.

The generalizations of races create a stereotype that does not reflect the individual.The final similarity is the way a defined culture or gender’s place in society. After 9/11 Muslim women were ridiculed for wearing a head covering. African American women are perceived as the head of the households (Grant 1998:197). This classifying of individuals is similar in counseling. Counselors are humans. If an apparent Muslim came to a counselor, or needed the services of a counselor, the counselor would paint the Muslim into a terrorist box.

Despite training to be impartial, counselors can judge individuals by race or gender. This is another reason individuals tend to want counselors that are the same race or gender. Counseling issues concerning race and gender are very similar.BibliographyGrant, C. A. (1998). Multicultural Research: Race, Class, Gender and Sexual Orientation. New York: Routledge. Ogunfowora, B. and Drapeau, M. (2008). Comparing counseling and clinical psychology practitioners: Similarities and differences on theoretical orientations revisited.

International Journal for the Advancement of Counselling, 30(2):93-103.Pope-Davis, D. B. (2001). The Intersection of Race, Class, and Gender: Implications for Multicultural Counseling. New York: Sage Publication Inc.