School Counselor Case

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Case Study Review
For this paper, I chose the case of the Vietnamese student, Lee, from our chapter 4 reading. The case describes Lee as a student who is seeing the school counselor because of some academic difficulties that he is having (Corey, Schneider-Corey, & Callanan, 2011, 2007). Lee is described as slow and deliberate in his style of conversation. The school counselor quickly assigns him to a remedial speech class. During a session with the counselor, Lee tells her that his father wants him to major in pre-med when he applies to college. Stacy, the counselor, gives Lee a homework assignment of telling his father that he no longer wants to apply to college and that he wants to “follow a direction that appeals to him” (Corey, Schneider-Corey, …show more content…

It is important that I respect the culture and ways of Lee and his family and not try to encourage or instruct him to treat his father differently than his normal culture. It is also important for me to respect the confidentiality of Lee. Telling him to go home and talk to his father in a way that would violate the cultural ways of his family could risk Lee being told by his father to no longer see me as his counselor and could also cause a problem for the school. It is a mistake for a counselor to impose their worldview on their client. Lonner and Ibrahim (1996) define “worldview” as “how an individual sees the world from a moral, social, ethical, and philosophical perspective. It is the source of a person’s values, beliefs, and assumptions” (p. 293).
I would not immediately refer Lee for remedial speech class. I would first do research to find out if this is normal for someone of Vietnamese culture who speaks English as a second language to speak slowly. I would take a culture-sensitive approach to counseling Lee. As lee’s counselor, my job is to help him by using the transcultural integrative model of ethical decision making by identifying the problem or dilemma that lee is experiencing, as well as consider the possible and probable courses of action, and finally choose the best course of action to help Lee (Corey, Schneider-Corey, & Callanan, 2011, …show more content…

Preparing him for counseling will help him learn to use his therapy experience to meet the everyday challenges he faces in his life. Understanding his culture and the ways of his culture will help in developing a trusting relationship with Lee. This is important since Lee was referred by a teacher and did not volunteer to come for counseling on his own. It is also important to develop open and honest dialogue with Lee, and create a treatment approach that respects his cultural identity and his individual characteristics (Healthcare Providers Service Organization, 2008).
Some cultures avoid making eye contact when talking to someone as a sign of respect, but if the counselor is not aware of this, they can easily mistake this for dishonesty, or being ashamed or uncomfortable (Healthcare Providers Service Organization, 2008).
As an effective counselor, it is important to shape your counseling practice so that it fits the client’s world and develop sensitivity to the cultural differences. Learning to practice from a multicultural perspective will make a counselor’s job so much easier and more rewarding for both the counselor and he

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