Assessment means the process of documenting, usually in measureable terms, knowledge, skills, attitudes and beliefs. Other meaning is assessment is any effort to gather, analyze and interpret evidence which describes institutional, divisional or agency effectiveness. They are too many meanings of assessment but it is just some of it.
Muslim counselors can use the assessment instrument in counseling services. It is because sometimes it helps us to know more about our clients. Most of the assessments are from America; maybe it is too open-minded because it is based on their culture. But some of the assessments are good because it is already tested. Some of us may think that the assessment is not suitable with us because contrast with our culture. But for me it is fine because nowadays most Malaysian live like American also. They follow the trend of Westerners. They follow how way westerners dress up, music, life style and so on. Because of all these things, many problems occur in Malaysia like fighting, pornography, abortion, sex before marriage and so on. So to know the details of the client we can assess the client by using American assessment. If the client with sincerely, she will answer with truthful but if the client wants to hide, she will cheat and will not tell the truth. I think most of us nowadays are open-minded also. Some of us can talk about ‘sex’ and something private as normal thing. They don’t feel any shameful. They can tell if we ask them. To tell about this thing is normal so to do assessment is nothing.
But we must know that we live in Muslim country and practice Muslim culture. Haram is still haram. We must know the limit of being Muslim. We cannot just simply follow all the Western idea. We must have prinsip. We can change the assessment based on our culture but we must have the permission from them first because we are using their original assessment. The reason we have to change because we don’t know what is the background of our future clients. Maybe she is from religious background, maybe she is strict on religious value. She may look that counseling and counselor is not serious about Muslim culture and she may not come to the counseling session anymore.
For the conclusion, as counselor we must alert of what happen in the world nowadays. It is to help us to know more about our client more no matter what is his/her race, culture, status and so on. Assessment is one of the important instruments in counseling. But we must suit it according to the culture. We cannot just regardless of the client’s culture because client may feel hesitate with the counselor and counseling. So we must be sensitive all about the client’s background.