A reflection on my own cultural concepts has enabled me to understand how personal values and beliefs may contribute to misunderstandings when working with others and how the impact of cultural differences can affect conflict. It has also explained where to get assistance if needed if conflict arose. This information will be used in my work when counselling clients from a different cultural background. Works Cited Open Colleges (2012) Student Workbook: Work within a structured counselling framework. Open Colleges Sydney, Australia Geldard, D., and Geldard, K. (2012) Basic Personal Counselling: A training manual for counsellors (7th Ed.)
For instance, a therapist must become aware of the sociopolitical dynamics that form not only their clients’ views, but their own as well. Racial and cultural dynamics may interfere into the helping process and cause misdiagnosis, confusion, pain and reinforcement of biases and prejudices towards their client. 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.
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
However not being aware of our own political values and cultural identity can have a detrimental effect on how we engage with, and sustain a therapeutic relationship with clients. Insofar as therapists and patients have different reference groups, all encounters may be considered cross-cultural. If this perspective is endorsed, then one may indeed consider cultural competence to be essential to overall clinical competence. Therapists should strive for cultural competency by acquiring both generic and specific cultural knowledge and skill sets. Various generic cultural issues may occur at each phase of psychotherapy, and specific cultural knowledge guides their resolution.
Effective teamwork is very crucial for the success of an organization, however, cultural differences can be sometimes challenging and create barriers to effective interdisciplinary teamwork as you deal with people with different values and beliefs. One of the challenges that managers face in a multicultural setting is to figure out the root cause of a cultural conflict and using the right strategic interventions to help the team move forward and be able to resolve future dilemmas. After conducting a research on conflict resolution, the authors discovered that managers’ ways of intervening on a dispute could either sideline importance team members or create resistance that can lead to poor team performance. Another challenge mentioned in the article was related to communication style. It was noted that communication challenges were either direct or indirect, meaning that, in western cultures, for instance, communication is more direct and explicit while in non-Western culture, communication is more centered on the meaning the message is presenting.
A diversity perspective is something that you take into major consideration when you counsel a client. In person-centered therapy the first major limitation to this multicultural populations is for people who are in mental health clinics may way a different type of treatment. They may want something more structured to help them resolve their emotional problems, and want to learn certain coping skills to deal with everyday problems. In person-centered counseling this may not be the best type of therapy in this type of situation. The second reason there might be some limitations is because it could be difficult to translate the core therapeutic conditions into an actual practice with some cultures.
Another way to be a competent communicator is to be ... ... middle of paper ... ...de when having trouble interacting with people from different cultural backgrounds. Both competent and intercultural communicators the same concept as to how to communicate effectively, but different methods to do it correctly. In conclusion, there are similarities and differences that can make effect the way you communicate as a competent and intercultural communicator. As a competent communicator you can have things effect your communication such as noise and environment, and as an intercultural communicator high and low context can affect your communication. They also have similarities such as having the goal to make you become a better communicator no matter the situation.
The Range of Barriers to Effective Interpersonal Communications These will look at cultural, personal and environmental issues. The role of available support services that are accessible to individuals, with the restrictions on available services will be evaluated. The effectiveness with which the skills of communication are given and received will also be evaluated. There are many barriers to communications between a vast range of people and cultures. Barriers to communications, because of cultural differences, can arise because of the lack of understanding between each culture, this could cause a clash between people.
While some have very strong views for the capacity of self-disclosure to cause serious harm to their clients (Smith & Fitzpatrick, 1995). Others point out the difficulty inherent in evaluating the short and long term implications, since the effects of self-disclosure may change over time (Goldstein, 1994). Smith & Fitzpatrick (1995) pointing out it is important for clinicians to avoid seeking personal gratification from their clients. Along these lines many stress the necessity to clarify both the therapist and client’s motivations. Yet some suggest this is not an easy a task, Mendelsoha (1991) cautions that even seasoned professionals have a difficult time determining if their impulse to engage in unusual therapeutic measures is based on their own needs or if it is the correct empathic response.
The counselor must consider the possible scenarios that may occur in the first session. Cultural aspects of the client must be considered. From the client’s perspective, the first session is an important session, even if the first session is mostly an information gathering session. The client may have experiences much trauma in their life, never being able to trust a person with their closest feelings. This is why it is very important to establish rapport and trust in... ... middle of paper ... ...confidential information is shared without their permission, this situation can be detrimental to the client.