Diversity and multicultural counseling issues in Brokeback Mountain

¶ … Jack and Ennis, two-19-year-old were gay and involved in a mutually romantic relationship, although one is married with children whilst the other has an impetuous relationship with a woman. The relationship between the men is tempestuous and rocky with only fear of the local killing them due to their 'queer' identity' refraining them from living together. Jack, the more openly gay of the two, is indeed killed by a homophobic mob in 1980 for being "queer." The book is a celebration of two men and their love for each other, and their suffering and dying for this love.

They represent the possible difficulties of working with gay and/or lesbian clients. Actually, Jack and Ennis also present therapists with the additional challenge of working with clients who have undergone trauma, but since this is the lesser challenge of the first and the two combined are beyond the scope of this essay, I will limit myself to discussing the legal, ethical, and other challenges that are involved with counseling the type of population that Jack and Ennis represent.

For any counselor who works with gay or lesbian clients, the first step is for them to conduct serious self-reflection in order to ensure that he or she contains no subtle bias to working with this specific population. Most research studies indicate that counselors have a difficult time understanding and dealing with sexual minorities (Barret & Logan, 2001). The counselor in question has to make sure that he is above such subjectivity and that he will not attempt to 'reform' him to his ways of thinking.

Since most communities are bi-sexual, living in such communities may cause counselors to implicitly view individuals with different sexual orientations as 'abnormal'. To transcend this attitude, counselors working with the gay / lesbian population are recommended to absorb themselves in workshops, relevant literature, and the gay / lesbian culture so that they retain and intensify their empathy and understanding of this subgroup. Also important understands the process of developing a gay or lesbian cultural identity (e.g. Croghan, 2001). Occasionally, specificities of race and religion can exacerbate matters, therefore counselors need to have a thorough understanding of all nuances of, not only their client's gender identity, abut also his ethnic and group identity in order to best appreciate and help him deal with his situation.

Counselors who feel insecure in accepting their client's homosexual identity are ethically required to refer the client to a counselor who is more objectively enabled to handle him.

Counselors should also recognize that there are two types of coming out. The first is oen where the client feels confident enough in his own self-identity and ready to embrace it, although, not necessarily, to share it with others. The second is the kind where the client reveals his sexual orientation to others. For many, although not all, one of the hardest steps is disclosure to the workplace. The counselor should be empathic to the ramifications and circumstances of the client's situation. Counselors should also realize that part of the consequences related to fear of coming-out is feelings of self-loathing, secrecy, withdrawal, and masquerading as false selves. This may in turn affect the individual's development in all areas of his life. .