Assignment Position Paper No. 1

Siti Hajar Bt Che Nik (0724714)

Counselor is a person that is qualified which they have skills that being train well from a trusted government, have a valid certificate from the counselor’s organization and follow the code of ethic in counseling. Counselor’s jobs are not just stay in the room and wait for the client to come but they have to take care about the client’s need and the environment around them. They should be a person that is sensitive to everything including the cultures that exist around them. I am totally not agree to the statement that said about teaching cross-cultural counseling to trainee counselors is a waste of time. Instead, we should focus on equipping the counselor with the skills and competencies for being good counselors and got nothing to do with the culture because as a counselor they should respect and understand other’s culture, two way communication become more effective and help them to avoid stereotyping the clients.

Firstly, as a counselor they should respect and understand other’s culture. A counselor that only has a good skills and competencies is not enough to handle a client with different type background of cultures. For example, there is one situation whereby a counselor held a party and invite all the students from different type of culture and the meals for that afternoon is only beef meat. That counselor must understand and know that the Indian people cannot eat the beef meat because for them the cow is their God. That’s why a counselor should respect and understand other’s culture very well before they hurt anyone. They should not be selfish and only think about their job without taking care of their surroundings because these are very important in order to build a counselor with wide knowledge and as an open minded person.

Secondly, as a counselor it is very important for them to have knowledge about other’s culture because this will create an effective two way communication which when we understand their culture, they will feel that we are taking care of them and they will feel more comfortable to share any problems with us at anytime without feeling shy or have any gap between the counselor and the client and we can take this chance in order to approach them more and easy to get any unclear information from them. Communication in counseling session is very important because if the clients do not want to talk to us, as a counselor we will feel that the counseling session had failed and we are not able to encourage the client to talk. This situation should not be happen in the counseling session. Asking about their preparation for the festival day could be as a start for the counseling session which will encourage them to talk more.

Thirdly, by knowing the people’s culture will help the counselor to avoid stereotyping the client and be aware of different in their attitudes, beliefs and behaviors. As a counselor we cannot judge the client with negative perspective without getting to know them first but we should please them with unconditional positive regard. A counselor with positive perspectives will create a positive counseling sessions and it will run smoothly without any barriers. Before we are putting any negative perspectives towards them, at first we should know their culture first by knowing the way they are shaking hands, the way they are celebrating their festival, their appearances, the way they are communicating with their children and many more. We should be alert on all of that attitudes, beliefs and behaviors. We are not losing anything if we learn about their unique and beautiful culture but it will give us lots of information and knowledge that is not easy for us to forget. Actually it is very interesting to get to know them more.

On the other hand, some people may argue that counselor got nothing to do with the culture. These people assert that by learning other’s culture cannot help to solve any problems in the counseling sessions. For example, if there is one client that has an intention to hurt a person with different background of culture, they said that it got nothing to do with culture’s background. They are saying like that without looking on any further effect that could be happen and face by the client and that person. They may have a point in thinking like that. However, it is important to know the real problems first before making any judgment. Maybe the real problem is they are arguing about the different and unique festival that they are celebrating. Maybe they are arguing that their festival is better than any other culture. So, only a counselor with wide knowledge on cultures who can solve it.

In conclusion, a counselor should have a wide knowledge on different type background of cultures in order to respect and understand other’s culture more, create an effective two way communication and help the counselor to avoid stereotyping the client. This will allow the counselor to increase their skills and competencies in their job as a professional counselor. Therefore there is no reason for the counselor not to learn anything about cultures.