Teaching cross-cultural counseling to trainee counselors is not a waste of time. To be a good counselor, we must concern about other’s culture besides having a good counseling skills and competencies. This is because our client comes from different background, races and culture. In order to have a successful counseling session, we need to make a good rapport and build trust with our client. So, teaching cross-cultural counseling is very important to trainee counselors in order to prepare them to handle the client that comes from different culture. In this context, we can define culture as the shared values, traditions, norms, customs, arts, history, folklore, and institutions of a group of people.
We know that cultural influences shape how individuals and groups create identifiable values, norms, symbols, and ways of living that are transferred from one generation to another. Race and ethnicity are commonly thought to be dominant elements of culture. So, counselors must aware about the meaning and their understanding of culture.
In teaching cross-cultural counseling to trainee counselors, there are several reasons why counselors should concerns about culture. First, understanding culture helps counselors to understand how others interpret their environment. We know that culture shapes how people see their world and how they function within that world. Culture also shapes personal and group values and attitudes, including perceptions about what works and what doesn’t work, what is helpful and what is not, what makes sense and what does not.
Secondly, understanding culture helps a counselor avoid stereotypes and biases that can influence the counseling session. When counselors know about other culture, they can help their client in smoothly way without any judgments or biases. It also can promote a focus on the positive characteristics of a particular group, and reflects an appreciation of cultural differences. As a counselors, we must accept our client without choosing the way their look, their religion and also their perceptions about some issues.
The effective counselor is one who can adapt the counseling models, theories, or techniques to the unique individual needs of each client. This skill requires that the counselor be able to see the client as both an individual and as a member of a particular cultural group.
The counselors must have self-awareness which is a necessary condition before one begins the process of understanding others. Both intrapersonal and interpersonal dynamics must be considered as important components in the projection of beliefs, attitudes, opinions, and values. The examination of one's own thoughts and feelings allows the counselor a better understanding of the cultural "baggage" he or she brings to the situation.
The counselors also must be aware about individual differences and others cultures. One of the greatest pitfalls of the novice counselor is to over generalize things learned about a specific culture as therefore applicable to all members of the culture. The counselors also must be aware of individual differences and come to believe in the uniqueness of the individual. It is necessary for counselors to be sensitive to words which are unique to a particular culture as well as body language and other nonverbal behaviors to which cultural significance is attached.
In conclusion, teaching cross-cultural is very important to trainee counselors besides equipping them with other skills because it can make the counselors explore, understand, and honor their client own cultural definitions and values. Other than that, counselors also can develop skills to assess individual client cultures and to work with the client to integrate components of that culture into a treatment plan that the client can accept, and it also can adopt an attitude of service to the client and the community itself.
Learning cross-cultural counseling can make the counselor constantly compare personal cultures within the context of professional obligations, and counselors can deal with any dissonance that occurs between cultures by honoring and setting aside or by making personally acceptable changes and developing methods of dealing with larger culture clashes and ethical dilemmas that can occur in cross-cultural settings. So, teaching cross-cultural counseling is not a waste of time but it is very useful knowledge that trainee counselors can implement when they become the counselors and dealing with different of client in the future.
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