MULTICULTURAL COUNSELLING WORKSHOP

Sauli Puukari

MAIN THEMES

• Multicultural counselling – starting points
• Multicultural Counselling Competencies      
• Different roles for different clients in multicultural counselling
• Ideas from a new book: “Multicultural guidance and counselling”

MULTICULTURAL COUNSELLING – STARTING POINTS

• Multicultural awareness – different worldviews are a special challenge
• We need knowledge – what is the role of knowledge?
• Sharing experiences and thought is needed
• Building collaborative networks and personal contacts is important
• Ethics are essential
• Encouragement and warm atmosphere are important

WHAT IS CULTURE? Different definitions

• Culture is something made and defined by human beings
• Culture is a way of life adopted among a community  or society or social group and it is a way to percieve the world and a way to experience meaningfullness
• Culture is the environment made by human beings consisting of
   -  an objective dimension: roads, buildings etc.
   -  a subjective dimension: beliefs, conceptions, values, norms and roles
• Culture is programming of mind
• Culture is something which makes us feel aliens while we are abroad 
• Culture is changing and moving all the time!
• Culture affects our lives all the time - we are partly aware of this but mostly unaware

BASIC ELEMENTS IN A COUNSELLING RELATIONSHIP

• Basic human relationship
• Transference relationship
• Working alliance

MULTICULTURAL COUNSELLING COMPETENCES (MCCs)

(Analysis drawn from SUE, ARREDONDO & MCDAVIS 1992 plus other publications)

A MCC framework is …

• actively discussed, debated and applied in USA - and has had an impact on other countries as well
• based on research dealing with cultural identity, intercultural communication, mental health and counselling of cultural minorities (Tutkimusta)
• developed for counselling where the counsellor is a white (Euroamerican) person from a dominant group and the counselee belongs to an ethnic minority. the main focus is on recognition of culture-boundedness of counselling approaches and methods, cultural self-knowledge of the counsellor, and understanding the culture-bound worldview of the counselee
• applicable:  Several studies (also international) have shown that using MCC framework has favourably affected counselling outcomes and clients’ experiences regarding the counselling

Follow this link for more information on the multicultural counselling competencies framework. 

BASIC ASSUMPTIONS OF A THEORY OF MULTICULTURAL COUNSELLING AND THERAPY - MCT

(Sue, Ivey & Pedersen 1996, 13 - 29)

• Proposition 1
  MCT is a metatheory of counselling and psychotherapy providing. A theory about theories, it offers an organizational framework for understanding the numerous helping approaches that humankind has developed. It recognizes that both theories of counselling and psychotherapy developed in the Western world and those helping models indigenous to non-Western cultures are neither inherently right or wrong, good or bad. Each theory represents a different worldview.
• Proposition 2
  Both counsellor and client identities are formed and embedded in multiple levels of experiences (individual, group, and universal) and contexts (individual, family, and cultural milieu). The totality and interrelationships of experiences and contexts must be the focus of treatment.
• Proposition 3
  Cultural identity development if a major determinant of counsellor and client attitudes toward the self, others of the same group, others of a different group, and the dominant group.  These attitudes, which may be manifested in affective and behavioral dimensions, are strongly influences not only by cultural variables but also by the dynamics of dominant-subordinate relationships among culturally different groups. The level of stage of racial/cultural identity will both influence how clients and counsellors define the problems and dictate what they believe to be appropriate counselling/therapy goals and processes.
• Proposition 4
  The effectiveness of MCT is most likely enhanced when the counsellor uses modalities and defines goals consistent with the life experiences and cultural values of the client. No single approach is equally effective across all populations and life situations. The ultimate goal of multicultural counsellor/therapist training is to expand the repertoire of helping responses available to the professional, regardless of theoretical orientation.
• Proposition 5
  MCT theory stresses the importance of multiple helping roles developed by many culturally different groups and societies. Besides the basic one-to-one encounter aimed at remediation in the individual, these roles often involve larger social units, systems intervention, and prevention. That is, the conventional roles of counselling and psychotherapy are only one of many others available to the helping profession.
• Proposition 6
  The liberation of consciousness is a basic goal of MCT theory. Whereas selfactualization, discovery of the role of the past in the present, or behaviour change have been traditional goals of Western psychotherapy and counselling, MCT emphasizes the importance of expanding personal, family, group, and organizational consciousness of the place of self-in-relation, family-in-relation, and organizational-in-relation. This results in therapy that is not only ultimately contextual in orientation, but that also draws on traditional methods of healing from many cultures.

DIFFERENT ROLES OF COUNSELLORS WORKING WITH CULTURALLY DIFFERENT CLIENTS

Atkinson et al. (1993) proposed that a minimum of three factors should be taken into account when selecting a proper approach to work with a client who has a racial/ethnic minority background:

• the client’s level of acculturation
• the locus of the problem’s etiology, and 
• the goals of helping.

Each of these three factors represent a continuum and the following roles of counselling were recognised based on the three-dimensional model:

• adviser
• advocate
• facilitator of indigenous support systems
• facilitator of  indigenous healing systems
• consultant
• change agent
• counsellor
• psychotherapist

REFERENCES

• Atkinson, D. R., Thompson, C. E. & Grant, S. K. (1993). A three-dimensional model for counseling racial/ethnic minorities. Counseling Psychologist 21 (2), 257-277.
• Launikari, M. and Puukari, S. (Eds) (2005). Multicultural Guidance and Counselling - Theoretical Foundations and Best Practices in Europe, Jyväskylä: CIMO and IER, University of Jyväskylä

Multicultural Guidance and Counselling - Theoretical Foundations and Best Practices in Europe (Eds. Mika Launikari and Sauli Puukari 2005).

The handbook addresses the needs that culturally diverse European societies have in terms of providing their immigrant and ethnic minority groups with better information, guidance and counselling services.  It discusses the multiplicity of realities in Europe, the conceptual and philosophical foundations of multicultural counselling, as well as multicultural approaches, methods and best practices in multicultural counselling in the contexts of education and employment. Theoretical aspects presented in the handbook become more familiar to the reader with the help of the questions and tasks sections at the end of each chapter. The handbook is intended for guidance counsellors who work with immigrant clients and are looking for information on theories, methods and practices in multicultural counselling. It is also aimed at guidance counsellor trainers who can apply the ideas and exercises of the handbook in their training programmes in order to develop their participants’ intercultural awareness and skills. In addition, human resources personnel in multinational and multicultural organisations can benefit from the handbook, as well as those giving guidance to international students.

The full text of Multicultural Guidance and Counselling - Theoretical Foundations and Best Practices in Europe is available from this link.