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Culture and diversity issues in family therapy
Multicultural issues in counseling
Multicultural issues in counseling
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I find several aspects of Client-Centered Therapy attractive and useful. Foremost, this theory approaches each client as a unique self, valued, and worthy of respect. This approach creates a built in model for addressing multicultural characteristics and intersectionality within the client as the therapist creates a focus on attempting to understand them. I would use this approach in therapy. Also, while possibly difficult, I think that the employment of unconditional positive regard is extremely powerful, especially in the therapeutic relationship, as not all individual’s have experienced this in their lives. The idea of unconditional positive regard is important to me, as someone who has had conditions put on my own personal experience
... By scheduling an activity that the client can participate in and complete, it can give them a sense of mastery in a specific task. This can be beneficial for the client to feel accomplished. Another technique that I feel can be beneficial in therapy is role-playing. Role-playing can be helpful for a client to learn how to dispute irrational beliefs by becoming aware of negative feelings towards theses beliefs (Tan, 2011). In addition, role-playing can help the client to overcome their emotions and practice coping skills that are more effective. The last technique I would incorporate into therapy would be relaxation training. I would suggest ways that can help the client relax including, deep breathing, meditation, yoga, a massage or exercising. By getting the client to have methods to relax, I think it can help with managing their thoughts, feelings and behaviors.
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.
While CBT has many advantages, it alone does not encompass all of the concepts I believe are necessary to tackle a client’s needs. Therefore, I draw upon concepts from various theories to assist clients in achieving their goals. Pulling from Reality therapy, a key concept I utilize is focusing on what the client is doing and how to get them to evaluate whether they’re present actions are working for them. CBT does use some form of this in the sense that one must examine and establish their cognitive misconceptions; however, I prefer to extract this concept from Reality therapy because CBT tends to do so by focusing on the past. I am a firm believer that while the past can shape who you are, it does little good to remain focused on it. Focusing on overt behavior, precision in specifying the goals of treatment, development of specific treatment plans, and objective evaluation of therapy outcomes all come from Behavior therapy (Corey, 2013, p. 474). Behavior therapy is highly structured much like that of CBT. By utilizing this aspect of Behavior therapy, I am better able to closely observe where a client is currently and where they are headed. Lastly, I pull from Person-Centered therapy as the final key concept of my counseling approach. PCT focuses on the fact that client’s have the potential to become aware of their problems and resolve them (Corey, 2013). This Person-Centered therapy concept has overlap with CBT as
It was an effective film to show that clarifying goals of therapy are another way to provide effective counseling rather than giving advice and solving the clients’ problems. Specially working with a minority group client, I always try to be prepared, learn about my client culture, background, values, beliefs, create a plan, make sure my client doesn’t not feel overwhelmed or discouraged by any of my statements, frame the issue in a personal context, and allow a moment of silence for the emotions to come out. In general, the counseling profession must develop multicultural competencies in order to successfully work with clients from diverse
Still, the previous advantages discussed should influence the nurse to improve in identifying patient vulnerability. This is evident by this patient where I utilized my interpersonal skills to communicate to this patient so that he/she is aware that he/she is not alone in this journey. Nurses need to utilize models and theories to guide nursing practice. For instance, McCormack’s framework focuses on patient-centered care which influences nurses to understand the patient as a whole and their values (Abley, 2012, p. 42). Being able to identify values will give nurses and myself a better comprehension about the patients resulting in worthiness and belonging expressed. As a result, informing nurses about patient’s subjective vulnerability because a trust and understanding relationship is established. This is supported in a clinical experience where a patient “felt understood and opened up for further interactions based on trust” through an honest, supportive relationship with a nurse (Gjengedal, 2013, p. 134). Nurses should provide patient-focused provision of service, and assist this patient in overcoming his/her obstacle as a way of encouragement. Furthermore, Sellman (2005) explains how encouragement may compromise human flourish (p. 7), it is dependent on the situation and it cannot be assumed all encouragement will lead to harm. This informs nurses to be aware of the consequences that prevent the
...ential impediment to postmodern and CBT interventions is practitioner incompetence. Psychological harm to clients is a potential danger of interventions implemented by untrained or inexperienced therapists. Likewise, the attitude and professional maturity of the practitioner are crucial to the value of the therapeutic process. In both approaches, whether taking on the role of teacher or collaborator, the therapist’s stance is one of positive regard, caring, and being with the client. While techniques and therapeutic styles may vary between and within the postmodern and CBT counseling approaches, they both enlist the client’s diligent participation and collaboration throughout the stages of therapy to accomplish positive therapeutic outcomes.
Client-centered therapists work to help clients lead full lives of self-understanding and reduce defensiveness, guilt, and insecurity. As well as have more positive and comfortable relationships with others, and an increased capacity to experience and express their feelings. Believing strongly that theory should come out of practice rather than the other way round, Rogers developed his theory based on his work with emotionally troubled people and claimed that we have a remarkable capacity for self-healing and personal growth leading towards self-actualization. He placed emphasis on the person's current perception and how we live in the here-and-now. The person-centered counselor places so much emphasis on genuineness and on being led by the client, they do not place the same emphasis on boundaries of time and technique as would a psychodynamic therapist. If they judged it appropriate, a person-centered counselor might diverge considerably from orthodox counseling techniques. “A clear statement of Rogers’s perspective on how change occurs is evident in his fundamental hypothesis, which consist of three parts. If I can provide a certain type of relationship, the other person will discover within her or himself the capacity to use the relationship for growth” (Fernald 2000). The philosophy that people are essentially good, and that ultimately the individual knows what is right for them,
...ersatile and positive orientated framework. By looking at the person and their story, I assert that a comprehensive view of the client can be reached. The empowerment and positive nature of the solution-focused modality undoubtedly generates results. However, I do no think these positive results could be reach without some traditional base as appoint of reference. While this will serve as my main counseling format, I am aware that I will need to be versed with other counseling and testing techniques.
broad range of clients. Awareness and respect for diversity and multicultural values facilitates good communication and therapeutic relationship.
To explain, the client should not be inferior to the counselor; the environment should be two people discussing an issue and ways to make a difference. A therapist should occasionally share similar experiences; therefore, sessions should make clients feel comfortable. To add, the client should feel safe due to the positive atmosphere the therapist brings to the session. The goal is to finally give the client a chance to be heard, regularly people are muted and feel like they are insignificant to society. Similarly, to Person-centered therapy where communication with the client is unconditionally positive. The therapist needs to genuinely care about the client needs for them to fully express themselves successfully. Furthermore, clients should be encouraging to make their own choices which model how to identify and use power responsibly. Hence, this will help the client feel more confident in everyday life when making a meaningful
An atmosphere of warmth and caring is necessary, and the client must believe the he or she is accepted unconditionally. (Jarvis, 2016, p. 28)
In addition, some clients may want to explore their multiple identities and how they position themselves in a world that is highly influenced by culture. Nonetheless, as I read this question, I realized that there is no right or wrong answer. Similarly, there is no right or wrong reason to come to therapy. Therapy is for the individuals who want help regardless of a reason or problem. It is possible that some clients may not have a problem but that is not for the therapist to judge. Instead, the therapist must remain curious and explore the client’s perception of the problem or problems in order to identify unique outcomes and help build preferred
Reflecting on the Person-Centered Therapy, it is similar to the Existential Therapy because it focuses on the client/therapist relationship, where the therapist needs to be totally genuine, empathetic and non-judgmental toward their clients in order to gain the client’s trust. I like the fact that the Person-Centered Therapy views the client as their best authority on their own experience, and being fully capable of fulfilling their own potential for growth. I also like the fact that the therapist is non-directive, does not give advice and there is no specific technique involved. Person Centered Therapy can basically develop their own technique as their relationship develop with the client.
Therefore, in order to improve our effectiveness we must confront our own adaptive affective, behavioral, and cognitive coping responses to diversity and multicultural populations. As noted by Wallace (2005), adaptive affective coping refers to the concept of identifying and focusing on the positive attributes and strengths of a client, while “having positive expectations about this clients ability to change” and sustain the change behaviors over time (p. 144). A critical component of interactions is empathy, which is defined as an emotional state reached by using one’s own potential to feel in order to appreciate a client’s inner emotional experience, and it likely is the most significant factor related to the success of treatment. In addition to displaying empathy, it is important that counselors demonstrate respect, which is an affective state experienced as a consequence of “acknowledgement of another’s experience as valid, real, and worthy of recognition” (p. 147). Once respect is established, it opens the possibility for acceptance. Acceptance is defined as an affective state that results from appreciating a person’s current situation, “what’s going on with the person, and the nature of the person’s experience” (p.148). An important aspect of acceptance is remaining free from negative judgment, criticism, and disapproval of the person’s emotions and behaviors, values,
Clients do not often care what theoretical orientation the counselor is, which statistical outcome provides the best treatment results for someone else, or even how a technique will work outside of basic explanations of what and why the technique is being implemented. The main reason the client is sitting across from a counselor is because they or someone they know has deemed it crucial in order for them to get help. If the therapist is not welcoming, working to build rapport and honestly does not give the client hope that their issue is not a lost cause, that client may end up leaving within one or two sessions. Building that therapeutic alliance, providing client motivation, and showing therapist confidence- explaining the counselor knows what they are doing and that they will try whatever they can to help improve the client’s day, will go a long way in the end (Fife et al.,