Empathy and Cultural in Counseling - Coursework Example

Empathy and Cultural in Counseling Empathy remains a central component of successful therapy, since it acts as a predictor of positive client outcome for therapy. There is significant evidence that highlights that treatment outcomes improve and dropout rates decrease when the client views the therapist as coming from the same ethnic or linguistic background. A culturally competent counselor usually manifests personal characteristics such as cultural knowledge, cultural awareness and beliefs, and cultural skills. The paper explores the place of empathy and culture in counseling and maintains that, the counselor’s awareness of personal culture benefits the clients and facilitates them with the process of gaining awareness of cultures that are diverse from their own. Introduction The need for therapists to be cultural “sensitive” or “responsive” is of great interest to counselors seeking to establish effective therapeutic relationship with the client. The changing demographics necessitate counselors to become more multicultural competent, which represents counselors’ attitudes and/or beliefs, skills, and knowledge in working with individuals coming from diverse cultural background (racial, ethnic, social class, gender, and sexual orientation). Competent and sensitive multicultural counselors must demonstrate: (1) awareness of own cultural values, assumptions, and biases; (2) awareness and understanding of the client’s worldview; (3) knowledge and application of culturally suitable intervention strategies; and, (4) willingness to exhibit empathic understanding (Ahmed, Wilson, Henriksen, & Jones, 2011). Psychotherapists and counselors are unlikely to be effective when dealing with clients who come from multi-cultural backgrounds, if they fail to communicate cultural empathy, in a manner that demonstrates that they comprehend and recognize the cultural differences and their influence on the therapeutic process (Chung & Bemak, 2000). The most essential work for each counselor and mental health professional relates to becoming more culturally responsive and respectful. Counselors should ask questions that are sensitive and show respect to diverse cultural beliefs. Cultural competency is considered central to the practice of counseling, especially in light of the disparities in the quality of services provided to ethnic minority groups (Chung & Bemak, 2000). The disparities manifest owing to service inadequacies, rather than any potential differences in access-related factors or need for services (Chung & Bemak, 2000). Cultural competence can be considered as an ethical obligation and cross-cultural skills should be placed on an equal footing with specialized therapeutic skills. Empathy and Culture as it relates to Counseling Culturally adapted programs such as cognitive behavioral therapy have been found effective in improving the outcomes of treatment. Patients who receive adapted cognitive behavioral had lower dropout rates relative to those who receive CBT alone. Studies on cultural competency demonstrate that, cultural competency adaptations demonstrate positive and incremental impacts on treatment (Chung & Bemak, 2000). Cultural empathy represents an interpersonal process detailing separate acts of understanding and communicating the understanding across cultures. Although, cultural similarity between clients and counselors may be helpful, it is not essential to attaining empathy (Myers, 1999). Cultural empathy represents the counselor’s capability to attain an accurate understanding of the experiences of clients who come from other cultural backgrounds (Ahmed, Wilson, Henriksen, & Jones, 2011). The capability of counselors to communicate their interpretation plays a big role in improving cultural empathy (Jones-Smith, 2012). During the development of empathy between the client and therapist, the client must be ready to communicate his or her perceptions on the counselor and the counselor must be receptive to the communication (Ahmed, Wilson, Henriksen, & Jones, 2011). Any differences that manifest between the client and the counselor may be a barrier to empathy. The differences may be in the form of age, socioeconomic status, sex, religion, education, and culture, which impeded the establishment of empathic understanding (Constantine, 2000). Empathy remains a core condition for availing effective psychotherapy. There is a growing agreement that empathy that empathy is at the heart of counseling and psychotherapy, especially because it transcends developmental stages during the counseling process (Myers, 1999). Empathy represents the counselor’s capability to enter the client’s world, feel with the client, rather than feeling for the client, and to think with the client instead of thinking for or about the client. Apart from being empathic, the therapist must possess the capability and skill to communicate and demonstrate empathic understanding (Chung, 2002). Empathy can be regarded as central and sufficient condition for therapeutic change. As such, the counselor ought to be empathic to the client if the therapy was to be effective (Myers, 1999). Being empathic relates to “perceiving the internal frame of reference of another individual with accuracy coupled with emotional components and meanings that relate thereto.”The presence of empathy is considered crucial to the success of the therapeutic encounter; however, empathy is largely private and unobservable (Ahmed, Wilson, Henriksen, & Jones, 2011). Empathy, which emerges within the dynamics between the client and the therapist, is also perceived to constitute a communication skill, in which empathic communications forms part of behavioral responses of the counselor (Ahmed, Wilson, Henriksen, & Jones, 2011). In multiculturalism counseling, the role of the counselor centers on influencing clients towards constructive change, whereby the client’s behavior change qualifies as a function of the strength of counselor social power (Myers, 1999). The interpersonal relationship of the therapeutic encounter can avail clients with self-affirmation and self-empathy. Recognizing the centrality of culture can help in the augmenting therapy, which in turn, yields to effective treatment of all clients. The culture-centered counseling encompasses recognition of cultural assumptions and gaining knowledge and skills to overcome them (Ahmed, Wilson, Henriksen, & Jones, 2011). For instance, the therapist may help the client to be assertive without necessarily sacrificing the traditions that the client wants to preserve from her heritage. Given the intricacy of culture, the counselor must take into account how he or she displays empathy effectively across cultures (Cassels, Chan, Chung, & Birch, 2010). Culture represents learned perspectives, which are distinct to a certain culture and universals shared across diverse groups. An individual’s culture shapes the worldview, which represents learned cultural ways of perceiving one’s environment. Worldviews constitute values, attitudes, beliefs, opinions, and concepts, and direct how individuals think, behave, make decisions and interpret events (Trusty, Looby, & Sandhu, 2002). Contributions and Criticisms directed to Person-Centered Therapy Rogers proposed the person-centered approach to counseling, in which empathy is central to the development of the whole and the fully-functioning of the client. According to Rogers, the only means to understand culture centers on assuming the frame of reference of that culture. The most critical contribution of person-centered counseling relates to the appreciation of compassionate multi-cultural exchanges (Cassels, Chan, Chung, & Birch, 2010). Client-centered therapy has largely viewed the counselor as the origin of empathy whether interpreted as a critical aspect of the therapist’s subjective experience or perceived as a communication skill or counseling technique (Ahmed, Wilson, Henriksen, & Jones, 2011). The biggest contribution of person-centered therapy relates to its elevation of the therapeutic relationship and recognition of empathy, as a necessary and sufficient condition informing multicultural counseling. Indeed, person-centered therapy recognizes the critical role played by empathy in heralding constructive client change during therapy (Sue, Zane, Hall, & Berger, 2009). Several studies have consistently established that therapist’s empathy is a strong predictor of client progress during therapy (Jones-Smith, 2012). However, critics of the person-centered therapy cast doubt on whether the therapist can or should always develop a relationship of positive regard, especially when the client is violent. The approach can also criticize because; it is obsessed with the client’s real and ideal self and tends to disregard broad environmental issues such as sexism and racism, which can be potent. The other critique relates to the perception that, rooting for multicultural competencies is tantamount for discriminating against or disregarding other diversity characteristics including sexual orientation, social class, and gender (Sue, Zane, Hall, & Berger, 2009). The multiculturalism approach can be accused on overemphasizing the function of culture and minority group status within mental health organizations (Cassels, Chan, Chung, & Birch, 2010). Conclusion As a society becomes ethnically diverse and globalization gains ground, empathy will be central in the provision of effective counseling. However, empathic understanding alone is not adequate in the establishment of effective therapy, since the therapist must possess the capability and skill to communicate and express empathic understanding. Empathy is central to the development of healthy relationships and plays a crucial function in a person’s social-emotional health and well-being. Trust and openness are pertinent to the development of any meaningful relationship. Such a relationship can only be attained within cross-cultural counseling if the counselor exhibits empathy for the client. Cultural differentials may heighten social distance, which in turn, impedes on the development of empathy. References Ahmed, S., Wilson, K. B., Henriksen, R. C., & Jones, J. W. (2011). What does it Mean to be a Culturally-Competent Counselor? Journal of Social Action in Counseling and Psychology, 3 (1), 17-28. Cassels, T. G., Chan, S., Chung, W., & Birch, S. A. (2010). The Role of Culture in Affective Empathy: Cultural and Bicultural Differences. Journal of Cognition and Culture, 10 (1), 309-326. Chung, C. (2002). The Relationship of Culture and Empathy in Cross-cultural Counseling. Journal of Counseling Development, 80 (2), 154-159. Chung, R. C. & Bemak, F. (2000). The Relationship of Culture and Empathy in Cross-cultural Counseling. Journal of Counseling & Development, 80 (1), 154-159. Constantine, M. G. (2000). Social Desirability Attitudes, Sex, and Affective and Cognitive Empathy as Predictors of Self-Reported Multicultural Counseling Competence. The Counseling Psychologist, 28 (6), 857-872. Jones-Smith, E. (2012). Theories of Counseling and Psychotherapy: An Integrative Approach. London, UK: SAGE Publications. Myers, S. (1999). Empathy: Is that What I Hear you Saying? The Person-Centered Journal, 6 (2), 141-152. Sue, S., Zane, N., Hall, G. C., & Berger, L. K. (2009). The case for cultural competency in psychotherapeutic interventions. Annu Rev Psychol., 60, 525-548. Trusty, J., Looby, E. J., & Sandhu, D. S. (2002). Multicultural Counseling: Context, Theory and Practice, and Competence. Huntington, N.Y: Nova Science Publishers. Read More