Importance Of Awareness In Counseling

Complete awareness is a skill that I feel is most necessary to possess to be a diversity-competent group counselor. While it’s important to be aware of your own bias, stereotyping, and worldview as counselor, complete awareness can range from, what you say, what you do, and even the faces you make. Effective group leaders recognize and understand their own stereotypes and preconceived notions about other racial and ethnic groups (Corey, Corey, & Corey, 2014). Awareness of what’s going on in your client’s world, from both the historical and present standpoint, is key because the counseling relationship is often affected by how your client identifies with their culture in relation to other cultures.

I also believe communication style is a skill that is very important. Non-verbal communication can be overlooked in the counseling relationship because the interest is more on what is said, rather than the other forms of communication in a counseling session. However, as a counselor, what we say with our body language and facial expressions, is just as important as the

The most obvious barrier that may present itself is a language barrier, which a lot of times we can’t get past, and in those situations, referral out to a more competent counselor is key. However, cultural barriers that directly correlate to expressiveness both verbally and emotionally, can affect the client/counselor rapport, and determine how successful counseling is for the client. For example, we like our clients to be verbal, articulate, and able to express their thoughts and feelings clearly (Sue & Sue, 2013). When dealing with a client who lacks expressiveness, the counselor, who lacks cultural competence may not understand it’s cultural relevance, and may view the lack of expressiveness as defiance. When this occurs, the potential for the counselor to view the client in a negative light