Counselling Ethnic Minorities and other diverse populations

Diverse Populations
Memo
To:
From:
Date
Subject: Counselling Ethnic Minorities
Counsellors deal with clients from diverse backgrounds, especially in terms of culture, age, gender, ability, sexual orientation, and religious background. Whereas the same counselling approach may be applied to all clients, adaptation is often important (Kottler & Sheppard, 2015). The counsellor must consider the unique background of every client and undertake the necessary modifications to ensure a personalised or culturally-appropriate intervention. Ethnic minorities comprise an especially unique group as far as counselling is concerned. This memo explains how to work with clients from this population. The memo specifically provides and justifies a plan for counselling a client from ethnic minority groups, considers stereotypes and biases that may be encountered in working with the client, and identifies strategies for ensuring cultural sensitivity when working with the client.
Working with clients from ethnic minority populations requires five important things. First, the counsellor must be aware of their own cultural identity (Kottler & Sheppard, 2015). Virtually everyone has a cultural identity – an identity that informs their values, beliefs, and worldviews. Understanding one’s cultural identity helps the counsellor acknowledge how their culture differs from others. The second step is to familiarise oneself with the clients’ cultural background (Kottler & Sheppard, 2015). The counsellor should obtain as much information about the cultural characteristics of ethnic minorities as possible. This information is vital for learning about the history, background, and traditions of the population the client comes from.
The counsellor should also be aware of any oppression or marginalisation the group has faced historically (Kottler & Sheppard, 2015). Most ethnical minorities have been subject to socioeconomic marginalisation, placing them at a major disadvantage compared to the majority. The fourth step is to recognise and challenge the counsellor’s biases with the regard to the ethnic minority population in question (Kottler & Sheppard, 2015). Indeed, stereotypes about ethnic minorities are widespread (Sue & Sue, 2012). For instance, it is often assumed that male African Americans are delinquent. It is also assumed that African Americans do not work as hard as everyone else. The counsellor must avoid such prejudices as they may connote racism, ultimately hampering the counsellor-client relationship. The last step is to adapt the counselling intervention to the client’s cultural background (Kottler & Sheppard, 2015).
Adapting the counselling intervention leads to a culturally sensitive intervention. A culturally sensitive intervention involves interacting with and helping the client in a manner that acknowledges their unique cultural background (Sue & Sue, 2012). During the interaction process, for instance, the counsellor helps the client to tell their story, listens reflectively, and avoids assumptions that may be influenced by past experiences with other clients or first impressions (Kottler & Sheppard, 2015). A culturally sensitive counsellor also asks the client to convey any cultural cues that might be helpful for the counselling, depicts language and behaviour that resonates with the client’s cultural characteristics, monitors biases that may emerge in the course of interaction, and communicates in a sensitive, appropriate, and respectful manner (Kottler & Sheppard, 2015). Such an approach has the potential to elicit more effective counselling outcomes to the benefit of both the counsellor and the client.
On the whole, ethnic minorities have unique cultural histories and characteristics that ought to be taken into account when dealing with clients from this group. These characteristics influence how individuals think, behave, communicate, and interpret the world around them Understanding these characteristics is vital for ensuring a culturally appropriate counselling intervention. It helps the counsellor create a healthy relationship with the client.



References
Kottler, J., & Sheppard, D. (2015). Introduction to counselling: Voices from the field. 8th ed. Boston: Cengage Learning.
Sue, D., & Sue, D. (2012). Counselling the culturally diverse: Theory and practice. 6th ed. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.