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CROSS-CULTURAL CLIENTS.
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Discusses issues of therapist/client empathy.... More...
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Paper Abstract:
Discusses issues of therapist/client empathy. The need for a therapist to identify with the feelings of clients. Complications in this process due to the emergence of multiculturalism and diversity. New responsibility of therapists to employ multicultural awareness in addition to the traditional responsibilities associated with transference and expert techniques.
Paper Introduction:
This research examines issues relevant to the subject of concerns that professional counselors must be aware of when they serve clients "cross-culturally." Counselors whose clients are members of social groups that are ethnically or culturally marginalized relative to white mainstream American culture--or who are themselves examples of the emerging diversity of the profession--are uniquely positioned as practitioners. The experience of the embodied "other" presents rather unusual ethical complications to a counseling environment that may already have an "alien" aspect to it because of the unease and insecurity of clients who seek out psychotherapy. Such complications are the focus of this research.
One of the first principles of psychotherapy training is that "there must be a fluctuating interplay between doctor and patie
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But they are competent across cultures (1999, p. 5). 48-9). School counselor awareness of cultural differences and understanding of cultural variables are critical in responding to cultural issues that affect the developmental needs of children and youth from culturally diverse backgrounds (Yagi, 1998).This cautionary statement suggests that good intentions may not besufficient to the counselor's task of productively engaging their clients--whether students or mental-health patients--in a transcultural setting. Because of the changing racial demographics of universal publiceducation in the US, owing to significant increases in immigration fromLatin America, even educational and career counseling has felt the need togive more attention to changes in cultural cues given and received byclients (Coy, 1999). For example, the American Counseling Association (ACA)and American Association of Pastoral Counselors (AAPC) focus chiefly onclient welfare (ACA FAQ, 1999), while the Christian Association forPsychological Studies (CAPS) sees counseling in part as a religiousministry whereby members "apply the message of the Gospel to his or herprofessional or pastoral service" (CAPS Statement, 1999). Otherwise the counselingprocess could suffer. 5th ed. 14 ),able to recognize where conflicts of culture must be manifest, withoutbeing obliged to make every single tiny little detail of life aconfrontation. Now multiply the complexity of the therapeutic relationship by afactor of 1 , when therapist and client are communicating not only acrossdifferent levels of expertise but across different cultures as well.Diversity and empathy may be in tension in a social environment wherediversity and multiculturalism have become hot-button words. Suchdifferences as there are arise chiefly in emphasis, having to do with theparticular subject areas of though certain differences of substance canalso be discerned. 13). Greensboro, N.C.: Educational Resources Information Center Clearinghouse on Counseling and Student Services. B. But it is less important what the content of thetherapist's judgment of others is than that the therapist/counselorrecognize he or she is making a judgment and that he or she have arealistic picture of the content of judgment and object thereof. This does not mean that the multicultural emphasis intends to replace other theories, but rather that it attempts to guide the theory and practice of counseling toward a more culture-centered foundation. A provisionunder the subhead "Multicultural Skills" reads as follows: The professional school counselor: understands the diverse cultural backgrounds of the counselees with whom he/she works. . Multicultural counseling and the school counselor. That of course includes the dynamics of (forexample) transference and countertransference, but in order for customaryclinical processes to get under way, it is first necessary for the clientand counselor to make a connection at the human level. This includes, but is not limited to, learning how the school counselor's own cultural/ethnic/racial identity impacts her or his values and beliefs about the counseling process (ASCA, 1998). Thecounseling discipline seems in need of serious, practical, and proactivemethods for reaching across boundaries of resistance and overcoming thepotential for negative or pathological transference. Theory and practice of group counseling. . Ann Arbor Mich.: ERIC Clearinghouse on Counseling and Personnel Services. ACA code of ethics and standards of practice. S. (1999). AAPC's members,comprising certified mental health professionals who have also received in-depth spiritual training, are not expected to impose sectarian beliefs onclients. By no means is it the client (or the client only) who may have tolearn and act on paradox. ACA professional learning & resources ethics focus, frequently asked questions. While that may be difficult toachieve, the fact that the legal, ethical, educational, and workplaceenvironments are distinguished by nothing so much as continual change(hence ambiguity) is an unavoidable fact; one may as well become familiarwith the territory. What makes this recitation significant is that, especially during andafter the 199 s, the counseling literature has revealed multiculturalism tobe one of the more vexed issue fronts in the profession's ethicaldiscourse. (1999). Despite thefact that, over the course of the last 3 years of the 2 th century, thetransformation of the US from a segregated to integrated culture andadvances in civil rights have made cross-cultural contact betweenprofessional practitioners and clients more likely, it is also unrealisticto expect that residual racism or envy is going to absent from every suchencounter. The mark of effective assistance to counseling clients who areundergoing development and life transitions may be the ability to, atminimum, notice cultural differences and the paradox they imply, as well asthe prospect of difficulty and complexity of experience. Greensboro, N.C.: ERIC Clearinghouse on Counseling and Student Services. Retrieved from the World Wide Web 22 October 2 2, at http://www.schoolcounselor.org/index.cfm.Bolton-Brownlee, A. The culture-centered perspective is not "subtractive," competing with other theories, but is "additive" in facilitating more effective counseling from every viewpoint and in every context (Pederson & Locke, 1996; emphasis added). Transition into and out of cultures, like transition from job to jobor skill to skill, may take place at different times of life for differentpeople. Fromm-Reichmann,whose therapeutic training was well within the highly traditional Freudianmethod, is adamant on this point: The psychiatrist who needs the individual patient to build up his prestige and to prove to himself that he is able to use his powers and his skills successfully will be in danger of trying to impress his patient instead of being impressed by the patient's needs and difficulties (Fromm-Reichmann, 195 , p. Greensboro, North Carolina: ERIC Counseling and Student Services. Wolf (Eds.). Further to this point, Rogers argues thatthe counselor/facilitator should participate actively in making the client-counselor relationship mutually empathetic and accepting. Retrieved from the World Wide Web 22 October 2 2, at http://www.aapc.org.American Counseling Association. . CAPS statement of faith and ethical guidelines. As Perlssays in a rather different context, awareness, of itself, can be curative(Perls, 1969). NASSP Bulletin, 83, 2-8.Engels, D. Krebs's Edgewalkers isa text that makes use of the power of personal narrative rather thanempirical research to convey strategies for coping with situations in whichego identity and psychosocial development may be at issue. Corey also highlights theimportance of empathy, citing a "genuine expression of caring" as opposedto a performance of caring, even though no two clients are going to beequally likable or are going to like the counselor in the same way, if atall. This research examines issues relevant to the subject of concerns thatprofessional counselors must be aware of when they serve clients "cross-culturally." Counselors whose clients are members of social groups that areethnically or culturally marginalized relative to white mainstream Americanculture--or who are themselves examples of the emerging diversity of theprofession--are uniquely positioned as practitioners. 15-16). Principles of intensive psychotherapy. ED391985). Power in psychotherapeutic practice. Despite the burdens thatmulticultural awareness poses, practitioners must encounter clients asindividuals and not as proxies for the culture with which they may identify--a culture that, in 21st-century America, may be different from their own.At the same time they should be aware of cultural difference, as well as oftheir own cultural biases and presumptions. To the degree counselors are in a position to deal with a client whocomes from a cultural, ethnic, or linguistic background different fromtheir own, they are advised to look first to their own house beforeattempting to regulate the socialization of their clients: The challenge begins by each of us assessing one's own cultural views and acknowledging one's own cultural assumptions. Edgewalkers: Defusing cultural boundaries on the new global frontier. (1996). Career Transitions in Turbulent Times. Bolton-Brownlee (1987) cautions that counseling effectiveness faces "three majordifficulties . ReferencesAmerican Association of Pastoral Counselors. (1961). Thetherapist in some manner is meant to interpret the patient's neurosis(issues), then facilitate and enable the patient's cure (increasinginsight). Krebs presents edgewalking as a learnable skill for all human beingsover the course of the (developmental) life cycle, although it alsoacknowledges that successful edgewalking is likely to involve a rather hightolerance for ambiguity and paradox. Edgewalkers, in Krebs's formulation, are not necessarilycockeyed optimists. 169-7 ). (2 ). On becoming a person. As a group the counseling disciplines have addressed a variety ofissues relating to issues of diversity that inform the contemporary helping-profession environment. ABSTRACT. . American Journal of Psychotherapy, 5 , 298-31 .Christian Association for Psychological Studies. Retrieved from the World Wide Web 22 October 2 2, at http://www.mobynet.com/~caps.Corey, G. (1997). (1998). More generally, McFadden (1996) warns of"negative transference" if clients and counselors miscommunicate because ofinappropriate cultural cues and judgments. . The practitioner's need to be aware of and respond appropriately tothe special, individual needs of the client who is in therapy is in thebackground of the professional literature that deals with the specialethical challenges that a multicultural counseling situation poses.Consider language embedded in the current ethical code of the AmericanSchool Counselor Association, which specifically attempts to account forproblems that may be unique to the therapist-client relationship iftherapist and client come from different cultural backgrounds. However, thatposition has a long history in the counseling profession. It is a commonplace of the helping professions that apractitioner must bring to any of the counseling, psychotherapeutic, orsimilar helping protocols empathy, or vicarious experience of oridentification with the feelings or thoughts of others. (1996, Summer). (1998, June 25). Ethical dimensions of psychotherapy: A personal perspective. provide[s] sufficient preparation for a lifetime ofprofessional service." While advocating the provision of continuingeducation of practitioners at all levels, they also caution against usingcredentials standards as an device for making entry into the professionmore difficult. 15). (1997). (1999). . Career counseling and credentialing. . (1999). 222-3). 57-66.Pederson, P. I.L. Foreword. ERIC Digest (Report No. The mark of effectivecounseling may be the ability to engage with such developments while alsodisinterestedly supporting and enabling their pursuit. She cites people "who use their intelligence,creativity and stamina to solve problems, promote harmony and find a betterway," as against people whose identity politics may foster political andsocial gridlock--or indeed multiculturalism, which some believe has provedto be more divisive than unifying as a principle of social organization(1999, pp. Retrieved from the World Wide Web 22 October 2 2, at http://www.counseling.org/resources/ethicsfaq.htm.ASCA Ethics Committee. But the discourseof multiculturalism and diversity that as emerged in the social sciences inrecent years has complicated the picture of the client-practitionerrelationship. The counselor bears a new responsibility, in addition to thetraditional responsibilities associated with transference and experttechniques, when responding to clients. The whole range of associations and attitudes associated with thepresence of such terms as diversity and multiculturalism has the potentialto complicate the psychotherapeutic context. Edgewalking isthe name Krebs gives to competent movement of an individual betweencultures with which he or she is either identified or in which he or she ismaterially positioned. San Francisco: Josey-Bass.Rosenfield, S., & Nelson, D. Typically, she says, the undesirable aspects of a givenculture (sexism, racism, and similar hatreds) are those that need to bechallenged, mainstream or not (pp. (1995). The school psychologist's role in school assessment. (195 ). Far Hills, N.J.: New Horizon Press.McFadden, J. However, if that is a realistic picture of the patient'shumanity, it is an unrealistic picture of the therapist as human being. (1994, April 28). Alexandria, Va.: American School Counselor Association. the counselor's own culture, attitudes, and theoreticalperspective; the client's culture; and the multiplicity of variablescomprising an individual's identity." A counselor must bring to theencounter an ability to articulate his or her own cultural background andphilosophy, as well as openness to, or what Rogers (1995) would callunconditional positive regard for, whatever baggage the client brings tothe encounter--and what may be perceived as radically different structuresof morality and reasoning. New York: Bantam Books.Rogers, C. Retrieved from the World Wide Web 22 October 2 2, at http://ericae.net/edo/ED391985.htm.Yagi, D.T. 28 ), but the fact that the emotional life of thecounselor is not to be concealed is one source of the power of the client-or person-centered approach to counseling. The emerging prominence of cross-cultural concernsvividly demonstrates that, no less important, is the fact that theboundaries of the counseling context are something of a moving target.Rosenfield and Nelson (1995) note that school psychology, which early inthe 2 th century was confined to psychometrics, or diagnostic aptitudetesting of children's academic performance, intelligence, and personalityhas been extensively reconfigured "to meet the demands of public policy andlitigation, the requirements of an increasingly diverse student population,and the constant shifting of educational concerns." Further to this point,Engels, Kern, and Durodoye (1997) explain that "no counselor educationprogram . R. New York: Human Sciences Press.Krebs, N. Chodoff (1996) cites a rangeof perils attendant to it, such as the unavoidable creation of a powerrelationship between expert therapist and client, however much the expertmay wish to engage in client-centered interventions on the basis of mutualtrust and respect. (1969). The practitioner seems much more likely to haveneed of acknowledging the contingent nature of the therapeutic environment,especially where cross-cultural issues surface. The fact that multicultural counseling may be problematic does notmean that cross-cultural practice is bound to fail. (1999, January). Issues in multicultural counseling. . One view of that issueis classical in orientation, that the therapist should guard againstcountertransfering his own unresolved difficulties into the relationshipwith the client, which would result in (a) dropping a neutral perspectiveand (b) displaying emotion to the patient (Heller, 1985, pp. (1985). (1985) A client-centered/person-centered approach to therapy. ED279995). Gestalt therapy verbatim. Greensboro, N.C.: ERIC Clearinghouse on Counseling and Student Services.Fromm-Reichmann, F. Pederson and Locke makethat clear when they say that "the multicultural revolution is a bottom-upand not a top-down revolution in the field of counseling." They continue: [M]any times the consumers of counseling services are more aware of this rapidly changing focus than the providers. The factthat clients seeking counseling are often in a vulnerable emotionalsituation helps explain why professional associations do not condone self-promotion and aggressive advertising for private clients in aninstitutional/group setting. Retrieved from the World Wide Web 22 October 2 2, at http://www.ed.gov/databases/ERIC_Digests/.Chodoff, P. Retrieved from the World Wide Web 22 October 2 2, at http://www.counseling.org/resources/codeofethics.htm.American Counseling Association. By the same token, question of race and culture should not make entryinto the psychotherapeutic-counseling relationship more difficult. R. . Corey observes that some therapists "have difficulty 'beingthemselves'" (2 , p. Psychotherapists' Casebook: Theory and Technique in Practice. The intensity of failure of empathy, encounter, of therapy progresscould be aggravated if client or therapist attitudes were shaped in a waythat would "explain" the breakdown of therapy in terms of race orethnicity. W., Kern, C., & Durodoye, B. Retrieved from the World Wide Web 22 October 2 2, at http://icdl.uncg.edu/ab/ 51799- 6.html.Perls, F. It has been noted with some frequency and in a variety of waysthat counselors who come from the dominant (white) culture bring to thebanquet of counseling all the presumptions of Anglo-European intellectualand cultural superiority as well as an assumption that the Anglo-Europeanculture and ethos are the standard against which all intellectual,academic, and psychosocial judgments are appropriately made (e.g., Pederson& Locke, 1996; Yagi, 1998). Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.Rogers, C.R. Kutush & A. One of the first principles of psychotherapy training is that "theremust be a fluctuating interplay between doctor and patient" (Fromm-Reichmann, 195 , p. Greensboro, N.C.: ERIC Clearinghouse on Counseling and Student Services. Rogers seescounseling as a two-way street, "where feelings and cognition merge intoone unitary experience which is lived rather than examined, in whichawareness is nonreflective, and where I [counselor] am participant ratherthan observer" (Rogers, 1961, pp. Highlights: An ERIC/CAPS Digest (Report No. That is why complete awareness of the variety of feelings andattitudes that may surface in a multicultural counseling setting is soimportant. Stamford, Conn.: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company.Coy, D. [and are] insecure and anxious" (Fromm-Reichmann, 195 , p.13), it is essential that they feel secure in the structure of thecounseling setting, and it is the responsibility of the counselor/therapistto make the effort to take care of the client in that regard. (1987). Retrieved from the World Wide Web 22 October 2 2, at http://icdl.uncg.edu/ft/#eric. Ethical standards for school counselors. Having noticed--Fromm-Reichmann (195 ) cites the fundamental importance of listening--thepractitioner is better positioned to pursue the possibility of building ahighly useful and effective cross-cultural bridge. The role and training of the school counselor: Background and purpose. Values and career development through transcultural counseling. Itreinforces the picture of the therapist as a demigod, which in Heller'sview limits the validity of any explanation of "therapist activity" orbehavior (Heller, 1985, p. Codes of ethics have evolved over a fairly longperiod of time in response to changing social, professional, and politicalpriorities, but obviously a first principle of client welfare drives theformal protocols of ethics in all of the professional associations. The whole concept of client-centered (person-centered) therapy grew up around the idea that the practitioner is not theproper focus of therapy; the client is (Rogers, 1985). B., & Locke, D. The experience of theembodied "other" presents rather unusual ethical complications to acounseling environment that may already have an "alien" aspect to itbecause of the unease and insecurity of clients who seek out psychotherapy.Such complications are the focus of this research. Because allpsychotherapy clients to some extent "suffer[] from an impairment in self-assurance . Code of ethics, amended. C. Cultural and Diversity Issues in Counseling. Chicago: Phoenix/University of Chicago Press.Heller, D.
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