This reflective essay examines the cultural competency challenges faced by a counselor whose Christian faith shapes their worldview. The paper identifies personal strengths—such as humility, active listening, and unconditional positive regard—alongside key weaknesses, particularly a tendency toward under-directiveness when working with clients from different cultural or socioeconomic backgrounds. The author outlines concrete strategies for soliciting client feedback, suspending judgment, and addressing limitations through professional literature and online training resources. Drawing on humanistic and Rogerian therapeutic principles, the essay argues that cultural humility and compassionate engagement are not only ethically sound counseling practices but also consistent with a Christian commitment to human dignity.
Any committed Christian living in a largely secular society will find him or herself faced with challenges when the need to be empathetic and accepting of the views and emotional needs of friends and family may seem to clash with deeply held beliefs. During such moments, I often say to myself, "Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her" (John 8:7, NIV). Working as a counselor, however, is likely to give rise to even more challenging situations regarding my level of cultural comfort and tolerance. It is vitally important to strike a balance between an open-minded attitude toward my clients' beliefs while still drawing upon a coherent ethical counseling worldview.
As noted in Prior and Chatraw (2019), the desire of Christians to engage with culture often ends poorly, even with the best of intentions. Even the most committed Christian therapists must engage emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually with different worldviews. I try to be a good listener, and this informs all of my interactions with others. All too often, I have seen people too eager to talk about their own beliefs without being willing to listen to others. I believe that offering unconditional positive regard is a critical foundation in counseling. No client can feel safe discussing his or her concerns with a counselor if the client fears the counselor is passing judgment on his or her lifestyle and culture.
The idea of unconditional positive regard is at the heart of humanistic, Rogerian therapy, which emphasizes the need to create a safe and accepting environment within the therapeutic context for the counselor–client relationship to flourish; an atmosphere of perfectionism is not conducive to this (Miller, Hilsenroth, & Hewitt, 2017). On the other hand, it is also not helpful for the counselor to be too passive when the client is making hurtful decisions — both for him- or herself and others. One of my weaknesses is that I may not be directive enough in encouraging the client to engage in self-scrutiny. This is true under all circumstances, but particularly when the client comes from a very different cultural worldview than my own, or from a very different socioeconomic context. Because I do not want to cast the first stone or be too judgmental of what I cannot fully understand, I may err on the side of not giving enough advice or confidently applying my expertise.
Having grown up in a culturally diverse environment, I think my greatest skill is the humility I have developed and the flexibility of my perspective. I have gained considerable comfort with different interpersonal, nonverbal, and verbal communication styles. I have a formal toolkit of professional resources in the form of academic journals and textbooks, as well as an informal toolkit of friends and colleagues who can offer me guidance.
"Two-way feedback and culturally informed questioning"
"Literature, online training, and suspending judgment"
As a counselor, I will likely interact with many people with whom I disagree in some respect over the course of my career. The purpose of counseling is not to make the client agree with me, nor for me to agree with everything the client does. I believe the counselor must affirm the essential human worth of every client, which means striving to understand the client's perspective with compassion. Ultimately, I believe this is also a deeply Christian aim, even as I recognize that I will encounter many people of very different religious orientations than my own throughout my professional career.
You’re 46% through this paper. Sign up to read the remaining 2 sections.
Sign Up Now — Instant Access Already a member? Log inAlways verify citation format against your institution’s current style guide requirements.