In Todays Society How Would a Counsellor Demonstra

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In todays society how would a counsellor demonstrate their ability to facilitate a client from a multicultural background. By Beth Williams Nowadays the issue of multiculturalism is always an important factor to consider as in most countries there are a huge range of multiculturalism within the country and its communities. There are different aspects of ethnicity to consider also such as Sexuality, Gender, Race and culture. This assignment will examine the issue of culture and the way in which it can affect a counselling relationship between a client and a counsellor. There is no doubt counsellors have to be aware of the complications when it comes to culture (Pederson & Ivey 1993). Within a culture people develop patterns of behaviour that they have learnt. Cultural identity differences can be perceived between themselves and other groups and can also be based on personal preferences i.e. Language, religion, lifestyle, Birthplace or even life experiences. There is a danger that if counsellors minimise cultural differences they are likely to impose the larger multicultural groups similarities upon the smaller multicultural groups and uphold one group as being more important than the other. Over-emphasising the differences may result in difficulty finding common ground upon which to build the counselling relationship. A counsellor should maintain a balance by recognising the importance of the similarities and differences, and understand them, build a good communication and counselling relationship. (Pederson 1994) Without cultural awareness counsellors may engage in faulty information, processing that they may limit the client to fair counselling:- i.e. Asians show now or little affections in counselling, but may have symptoms like headaches instead. Eye contact in Chinese people is very limited, this may give the counsellor the
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