POSITION PAPER 1

“Teaching Cross-cultural Counseling to trainee counselors is a waste of time. Instead, we should focus on equipping them with the skills and competencies for being good counselors. These have nothing to do with culture.”

This statement may look light and simple. But after having a deep contemplation and thought, I believe that teaching Cross-cultural Counseling is a must. Dealing with people from variety of lifestyle and point of views is not an easy thing to do. There must have been some difficulties or misunderstanding in interaction and communication. As a human being, it is a need to get us coping with other people to ensure that we are alive. Life does not mean if there is no connection with others. We connect each other for food, shelter, love and affection, safety, respect and many more. So, the skills of knowing other culture have to be known by any other human being, not only for counselor. I totally agree that trainee counselor should learn cross-cultural counseling besides equip them with other skills and competencies in counseling practices.

A good counselor is a person that has the skills to understand client’s perspectives and point of views. This is not an easy job if the counselor does not have the awareness of client culturally. There will be a gap that will make misunderstanding and the counselor might fail to understand the client’s verbally or non-verbally. And this situation of course will make the session cannot achieve the objectives. The counselor then will fail to dig down the real issue of the client. He might use to understand the surface of the issue. And of course this will make the client loss their confidence towards the counselor.

Cross-cultural counseling occurs whenever the cultural heritage of the counselor and the client differ. Does a trainee counselor concern about this issue as if they don’t take this course? I believe that it does not across their mind at all. Not even me. But through this course I realize that we are not going to handle a client that own the same cultural, beliefs, values and even perspectives as we did. As Malay, I expect that a Malay client will have the same culture as I did. However, I came across that a person is differing culturally even though the client is also Malay. What will happen to those clients who totally differ ethnically? Yes, a good counselor should master all the skills, techniques and competencies to be an effective and efficient counselor. But they also should focus on cross-cultural counseling. I believe that to be a good counselor, cross-cultural counseling is vital since it is part of these skills, techniques and competencies.

The counselor striving for culturally competent practice will work hard to understand their own worldview and cultural heritage so that they do not impose their personal and cultural biases on their clients. They will work hard to enhance cultural knowledge of other societies, such as learning about common beliefs, the way they sit, talk, parenting practices, and many other social behaviors. They will also concern about cultural sensitivity and recognize that differences between cultures occur without applying judgments about the differences. The counselor also will seek for collaboration and information from other members of the cultural groups. They will be able to see the client as individual, not stereotyped representatives of a larger cultural group. For instances, a counselor might think that an Indian must be rough, impolite and messy, instead of a very smart and polite Indian. This example shows that a counselor does not only have to know about unconditional positive regards, but we can see here how important cross-cultural counseling course give another perspective on clients.

So, in conclusion, I believe that teaching cross-cultural counseling is not only a must, but it is also does not enough if a trainee counselor just learn the theories or concepts of cross-cultural counseling. This course cannot only be the medium of gaining knowledge on culturally differences towards client, but a trainee counselor should aware that worldview varies not only with cultural, racial, and national origin, but also with age, gender, education, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, career, marital status and many other factors. I believe that a good counselor should put much concern on cultural knowledge in order to enhance the communication and attending behavior skill and also will decrease the cultural biases on their client. Serve client the best must be our most concern and again, cross-cultural counseling will open up new perspectives towards clients.