COUNSELING CULTURALLY DIVERSE

Counseling Culturally Diverse



Counseling Culturally Diverse

Introduction

In psychotherapy, as in counseling, there are many and often opposing ideas about what makes such relationships “work” and even what the outcome of such endeavors should be. Both are interventions delivered in and through a relationship established between one person who is more expert or experienced in some way; and another who is seeking or has been identified as needing assistance. Although there is clear agreement that the relationship between therapist and client is important, there are differing ideas about the role that the relationship itself plays in the change process and what the nature and focus of these kinds of interactions ought to be (Ahn and Wampold 2001).

Discussion

To summarize, whatever the framework used, the research on psychotherapy clearly points to the importance of attending to certain common dimensions of helping or change-oriented relationships. Efforts to identify such common dimensions in counseling could help distinguish more effective relationships from those that are only marginally helpful or even harmful (Lampropoulos 2000). These factors may be closely aligned with those identified in the psychotherapy research, or they may prove to be somewhat different (Ahn and Wampold 2001).

It stands to reason that warmth, empathy, and genuineness are all likely to be central components of counseling relationships that make a difference. However, given that counseling is not necessarily a treatment or remedial approach, the importance of goal consensus, for example, may vary depending upon the nature of the counseling relationship. Goal consensus could prove critical in a short-term program whose purpose is to foster the protégé's development of a set of prescribed skills, whereas a broad and general agreement about expectations of the nature of the relationship may be more fitting for an ongoing community-based or a regular counseling relationship. Finally, given the highly social nature of various counseling relationships, a distinct-common factor may be the pleasure and support derived through experiences of companionship (Lampropoulos 2000).

Therapeutic Strategies

Other psychotherapy research has focused on the contributions that the specific theory-based approaches to treatment and their accompanying techniques make to the change process. With estimates that there are more than 200 theoretical frameworks and an even larger number of accompanying sets of techniques in the literature on counseling and psychotherapy today, it can be daunting to consider which approaches might be most fruitfully applied to the counseling process. Many of the more long-standing approaches, each grounded in its own set of assumptions about change and growth and all of which have been applied in some way to the practice of counseling, can be grouped into three main categories: interpersonal, cognitive-behavioral, and systems theories (Lambert & Barley 2002).

Interpersonal approaches, which incorporate many client-centered ideas and techniques, recognize that mental health concerns have numerous roots causes, but emphasize that they typically occur within an interpersonal context. Focusing on the current interpersonal dynamics within the therapy relationship itself is thought to offer as much, if not more, insight into how to assist the client with his or her concerns than does inquiring ...