Building rapport is very important for the success of any relationship, more so for counseling relationships. According to Duan & Brown (2015), 40% of the change in therapy is attributed to the quality of the relationship a counselor manages to build with his/her client. Therefore, it is important for a counselor to get a client to trust him/her and to feel comfortable in the therapy environment. Failure to establish rapport means a client would find it difficult to divulge important details, would not trust what the counselor says and would not participate as the counselor needs him/her to. When building rapport, it is important to take into consideration the cultural background of a client as some approaches may work best for individuals from a certain ethnic group and fail for those from a different group. Hispanic American A counselor should not rush things when engaging with a Latino client. A counselor should ensure the relationship features elements that communicate mutual respect and reciprocity. Latinos are very committed to relationships they form and they, …show more content…
To Asians, maintaining harmony is considered more important than getting exact “truth” from them. Gestures, eye contact, body language, intonation, word stress and pitch are considered as important as actual words in a conversation. A counselor should thus pay attention to such cues from the client and make an effort to reciprocate. Asians are polite and are not comfortable with direct questioning as Caucasians who are from a low context culture are. A counselor should also show an Asian American that he/she can exercise self-control. Like Hispanics, Asians also value family and the counselor show how the client’s family can be a source of support. A counselor should exercise composure when discussing pain and sustain a modest behavior to encourage the Asian American client to open up (Duan & Brown,
With the growing population of minorities in the United States, it is reasonable to believe that at some point in a counselor or therapist career, there will be a session with a Latino/Hispanic client. From a cultural competence perspective, it is imperative that a counselor understands the Latino/Hispanic culture and their worldviews. Counseling Latinos offer to be discussed in the paper is the case of an Alberto and Angela a Mexican American couple married for 27 years. Alberto has recently lost his job. (
Although, even if the therapist is from the same cultural background this can still be hard to counsel these clients because of different traditions, language dialects, family values, and ancestry. This does not mean that the therapist cannot help these clients, but this could hinder the therapist and client relationship if brought up in an entire different environment. For instance, you can have two individuals from the same cultural background and family values, but these individuals live in an entirely different environment or learned different family values and belief system. When working with a diverse client, it is very important to monitor your own culturally beliefs and be willing to work with the client no matter if you have any biases or prejudice towards them. Some of the strategies that could be helpful in these situations include, (a) treat the client the same way you would like to be treated, (b) research some information about the clients background and, (c) beware of your own cultural biases and prejudices when counseling minorities if your unaware of their backgrounds.
“Cultural competence is the ability to engage in actions or create conditions that maximize the optimal development of client and client systems” (Sue & Sue, 2013, p. 49). Multicultural competence includes a counselor to be aware of his or her biases, knowledge of the culture they are evaluating, and skills to evaluate a client with various backgrounds (Sue & Sue, 2013). Client assessment involves gathering information pertaining to the client’s condition. Making a culturally responsive diagnosis involves using the DSM-IV-TR axis (Hays, 2008). Following the axis backwards is ideal to discovering the client’s diagnosis, understanding the client’s ADDRESSING outline will help to come to a closer resolution for a diagnosis.
The Latino culture is a collectivistic culture that puts group interests over individual interests. When counseling Latinos, one needs to keep in mind the importance of family in their culture. Family members need to be a part of the counseling process. At times, group counseling with the whole family could help, along with involving family in the treatment process. With the potential language barrier a counselor could also ask an interpreter to mediate with the client during sessions to make sure there is an understanding between the client and the
Trimble (2010), asserts that when working with Native Amercian populations, counselors need to embrace the differences, make sure appointments are sheduled for flexibility in the counseling sessions, be open to allow the extended family in the in the counseling sessions, be mindful that it takes time to build trust with this population and allow extra sessions and do not force the trusting process before getting to the root issues, if the client wants to be silent be respectful as this could be a part of their process, respect their culture, and confidentality is important to them so have a high respect for this part.
The idea is to do so by expressing a willingness to learn more about, and showing respect for the client’s worldview, belief systems, and means of problem-solving while remaining empathetic to their emotional journey. Discovering and addressing the client’s personal stories and realities will enable the counselor to establish culturally appropriate interventions.
Keeping a positive and open relationship so that the client feels comfortable sharing their issues with the counselor. If the client is feeling judged they will withhold information and stunt the counseling process.
The pain and the suffering, the oppression, and the exclusion all describe the history of Asia America. When they arrived to the United States, they become labeled as Asians. These Asians come from Japan, China, Korea, Laos, Thailand, and many other diverse countries in the Eastern hemisphere. These people wanted to escape from their impoverished lives as the West continued to infiltrate their motherland. They saw America as the promise land filled with opportunity to succeed in life. Yet due to the discrimination placed from society and continual unfair treatment by the government, the history of Asian American was being defined and written every day they were in America, waiting to be deported because of the complexion of their skin. Striving everyday to conform and mix with society, the Asian American faced constant rejection and exclusion from the American way of life, defining the history of Asian America.
The relationship between the counsellor and client is fundamental to the success of the counselling experience and the results that will follow. The counsellor and client need to build rapport and trust. The client needs to feel comfortable enough to open up and discuss their inner most thoughts and fears in the knowledge that the discussion is confidential and non-judgemental. The resulting relationship should be one of mutual respect.
For clients who express their experiences for the first time in counseling, it can be a powerful force to help them heal. It is important for the counselor to pay close attention to the person’s body language, affect and tone. The counselor must consider the possible scenarios that may occur in the first session. Cultural aspects of the client must be considered. From the client’s perspective, the first session is an important session, even if the first session is mostly an information gathering session. The client may have experiences much trauma in their life, never being able to trust a person with their closest feelings. This is why it is very important to establish rapport and trust in...
The use of active listening is an essential skill to achieve this type of relationship as well as a sensitivity for clients who come from a culture different than the counselor’s culture. Great counseling also includes being honest with the client from the first session where informed consent is provided. It is important to discuss the limitations of confidentiality. Another important factor is to guide the client into setting realistic goals, so the counseling sessions can be more
Current research implies that an empathetic clinician-client relationship and interrelated ecosystems play the majority role in the success of therapy (Kilpatrick & Holland, 2009). The clinician’s ability to be present and actively perceive what the client is experiencing is of utmost importance in creating a therapeutic alliance. It is imperative that the clinician gains positive regard towards the client and their environment displaying honest acceptance towards the client no matter what issues are presented in session. This closely relates to a sincere presentation of genuineness that instills a feeling of honesty within the client and clinician (Kilpatrick & Holland, 2009). An experienced clinician builds upon the therapeutic
Ethical Issues in Multicultural Counseling are very prevalent today. Counselors may or may not know how to counsel people of different race, ethnicity, gender, sexual identity socioeconomic status, disability, age or spirituality. Due to their lack of knowledge in that area, ethical issues may arise. In order for a counselor to gain knowledge of Multicultural Counseling, the counselor must begin to gain an understanding of their clients past and culture. It is also important that the counselor does not categorize the client based his/her race, ethnicity, gender, sexual identity socioeconomic status, disability, age and spirituality. The counselor also must consider and respect the client’s culture, when trying to comprise the client’s treatment
Counselors need to be aware that they are able to work with particular issues and certain cultural groups. This is because conscious and unconscious meanings and assumptions, such as strongly held religious or political beliefs, will be communicated to the client. “It is desirable up to a point to know about a particulars clients background and therefore not to ask questions about it” due to the clients may be frustrated and impatient with this use of their time. (Bayne, Jinks, Collard, Horton, 2008). This is where cross-cultural training, supervision and personal development are
My cultural background has provided me with my values, beliefs, and identity. Throughout my childhood I was taught to value family. Family was expressed as the most important relationships and family is meant to accept you and help you through whatever. This could influence the client-counselor relationship if the client does not value their family. Through making comments about family, asking the client if they have talked to family members about what they are going through, or suggesting it, can influence the relationship immensely.