POSITION PAPER

NOOR NADIRAH BT ZAINAL
0727636

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 counselor. These have nothing to do with culture. Discuss the above opinion.

When we talk about this topic, people may see it in different perspective and they will give different opinion. I see it in a positive ways that teaching cross-cultural counseling to trainee is not waste of time. For me, when the counselor learn about the cross-cultural counseling, it will give them more benefit such as, first it would help them to be alert with the sensitive issues of the client. In Malaysia we have 3 main races which are Malays, Chinese and Indian. Looking at these three different groups, we can see so many different aspects in terms of education, socioeconomic factors, ethnicity, language, religion, different belief and behaviour. As a counselor, we must set in mind that every person is unique and need to be respected. Counselor need to identify the issues that cannot be touch in order to make the counseling session run smoothly. For example, when the counselor had an Indian client, he cannot assume that Indian people are always related to the crime and gangsterism. Besides that, we cannot easily discriminate the client by looking at their skin colour. We need to accept them as they are and always tell them that “we are in the same boat” to prevent any discrimination. That’s why all trainees need to learn cross-cultural counseling.

Second, if the counselors learn this subject, they might have extra knowledge and it would provide them the opportunity to learn how cultural diversity can positively influence the solution of the problems. Counselor also can learn how communications styles can differ between cultures. They also learn that individuals within cultures differ as they do between cultures. This helps the counselor make their counseling skills become more effective.

Third, it is a fact that, many counselors not really exposed on the other diverse cultural because of they study based on the Malaysian culture only. Researchers have argued that a major problem in cross-racial relationships in counseling is that many counselors tend to impose their own values on their clients. When this happen the clients are not free to give their opinion based of what their lean and believe. It will also create a miscommunication between the two parties. As we all know the client come to see the counselor is because they want to get the positive outcome through the session. The positive outcome is happen when the counselor and client have the similar expectation of the treatment. When this objective achieved, it will consider that the session is going into the right path. But, if it will not happen, the client may feel their opinions are not acceptable and the counselor doesn’t have the ability to help them.

How race influences the counseling relationship depends on the counselor and client contact. The American Psychological Association’s code of ethics directs counselors to avoid racial bias within the counseling relationship (American Psychological Association [APA], 1992). To become a professional and ethical counselor, it is required them to follow this act.

Another advantage of learning the cross-cultural is it will teach the trainee to be flexible in the right time. Many of the counselors are following and develop their identities based on a history of being under the influence by their educators, supervisors, and professors. So, they must change some aspect according to their client background and environment to make them competence in dealing in variety types of problems. This will help them build a strong relationship with the client in order to make the client keep on sharing the problems that they faced in order to make the session successful.

On the other hand, people may think that there have nothing to do with culture and they must focus on equipping them with the skills and competencies to become a good counselor. Does it enough? Every people can learn the skills to become a counselor, but it differs from professional counselors who know how to manage different type of client. To become a good counselor, we must know and master in many skills and field. Let me put it like this, if the counselor know about the counseling skills like paraphrasing, confrontation, questioning and knows all the counseling theories, but still they are lake of one skill that is confronting with the different person or client who had different background with him, he will have difficulties through out the session and both parties will not be in the same purpose and opinion. Lastly, it will create a problem in the future like the client feel uncomfortable and it can lead them to terminate counseling services or not seek counseling services at all.
As a conclusion, I believe that every trainee needs to learn about the cross-cultural counseling as well as the counseling skills in order to make them competence and qualified to become a professional counselor in the future. Insyaallah.