Counselor is someone who is professional and has their own professionalism. It is not easy to be a good counselor if they are not enough training and practical. In order to be professional, it is true that we should focus on equipping them with the skills and competencies. A good counselor not only depends on the theory only but they must be expert in handling the clients by using the right techniques and skills based on the suitable and relevant theories. Some people said that it is wasting time teaching cross-culture counseling to trainee counselor. From their view, there are no relationship between counseling and culture. The counselor only gives guidance to the clients not constructs them with the races or belief and culture.
In my opinion, I’m totally disagreeing with that statement. In order to be a counselor, it is important for trainee counselors to have and learn cross-cultural counseling effectively. Before I proceed, let me explain first what cross-culture counseling is all about. This course introduces major issues of cross-culture counseling and the impact of diversity either within or between group differences and discusses the influence of ethnicity and cultural diversity on the helping relationship especially in Malaysia. As we know, there are three main races in our country which are Malay, Indian and Chinese. So, it is important for trainee counselor to understand this cross-culture counseling concept for the purpose of increasing their self awareness towards client’s cultural.
The objectives of this course are to introduce students to the relationship between cultural identity and counseling. Counseling is for everyone who wants guidance from the counselor to solve the problems. As I mention above, Malaysia have variety of culture, so counseling is not focus on the certain races only. Being a good counselor, we must have high self-awareness and sensitivity toward others culture heritage. There are many types of clients that will come to see the counselor. Some of them are belief in God and some of them are not belief in God. As a counselor, we cannot judge our clients. We must accept them and give respect toward their principle and belief. By understanding the culture values, counselor will be able to become aware of how clients’ cultural background and experiences have influenced their attitudes, values and behavior. When we don’t have that information, there will be misunderstanding and miscommunication between the counselor and clients. The counselor may have bad perception towards clients and may be biases and from that situation the counseling process will be not run smoothly.
By learning this course also trainee counselor can study strategies for counseling children and adults whose cultural background is different from them. As we know, some of the trainee counselor will be a school counselor who works with the school environment. Usually, their clients are students who come from variety of cultural background. This course will give the opportunity to the trainee to be exposed before they are working as a counselor. In handling this variety of students, it requires knowledge of the diverse cultural backgrounds from which their students originate and willingness on their part to do what it takes to help individuals with different values, needs, and interests feel comfortable. Trainee counselor who already learned the importance of multicultural sensitivity will have advantages to apply this concept in order to working with parents too. In school, they are not only working with the students but they also working with the parents. Trainee counselor need to learn about the attitudes and customs of the cultures from which students come in order to understand the behavior patterns of the children and their parents and avoid problems of miscommunication.
Others than that, cross-culture counseling relates to the attitudes of counselors and beliefs concerning race, culture, ethnic groups, gender and sexual orientations where there is a need to assess prejudices and stereotypes and to develop counseling that is positive towards multiculturalism, and the way in which the values and thoughts of counselors can affect the counseling and therapy. Besides, it is refer to the capacity of the counselor to know his or her own approach to the world and to become an expert on different cultures and that is why I said counselor is a professional person. It is because, the counselor should not only possess knowledge and specific information on the cultures of the people receiving counseling but should also understand socio-political influences. Lastly, I believe when trainee counselor learn this course, they will know, develop, build, and prepare themselves specific skills, ability and capacities (techniques for intervention and strategies) that are needed for working with groups in different cultures. This is because, it is not too easy to face with this variety of different background if we don’t know their own worldview.
As a conclusion, I believe that there are many advantages of teaching cross-culture counseling to the trainee counselor in order for them to be prepared before they are being a real counselor. Either we believe or not actually, counseling is a part of culture because in counseling session we will not only meet with them who are same culture and worldview like us. There are too many people in this world who have problems and need our guidance. Once again I strongly agree that trainee counselor should and must learn cross-culture counseling for their needed in order to be a good counselor.
By : Nor Aslinawati Nawawi
Matrik : 0726078
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