What are the four reasons that diverse clients may prematurely terminate counseling
What are the four reasons that diverse clients may prematurely terminate counseling ?The below assignment has been written by another student. Please read it very carefully and reply to it by providing at least 200 meaningful words, APA format, at least one in-text cite and from at least one academic resource. Textbook—Hays, D. G., & Erford, B. T. (2014). Developing multicultural counseling competence: A systems approach (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson. ISBN: 9780132851022. Thanks (Melissa)
According to our text, the four reasons that diverse clients may prematurely terminate counseling and avoid counseling are that some cultural groups may not see the same value in counseling that the U.S. sees, some culturally diverse clients may believe that there is a social stigma attached to seeking help in this manner, some may distrust the counseling profession, and other culturally diverse clients may have difficulty because of its inaccessibility. (Hays and Erford, 2014. pp. 30-31).
Most people living in the United States would not disagree that seeking assistance from a counselor can be a great resource when we are trying to work through, or overcome the problems in our lives. This is not always the case for people from other cultural groups. For example, Mexican Americans see illness as disrupting to their life, work, and finances. This cultural group places great importance on family and being able to provide for them. If the primary wage earner in this culture was struggling with substance abuse problems and entered a treatment program, they would be unable to provide for their family during the time that they were in treatment and decide against seeking help. (TIP, 2014). In the Chinese Americans culture, passivity is preferred over assertiveness and quietly dealing with problems is preferred over assertiveness. This makes it less likely that this group would seek the help of a counselor. (Bolton-Brownlee, 1987).
While there is some degree of stigma attached to people who have a mental illness in the United States, some cultural groups attach this stigma to a greater degree. For example, in India “perceptions of family honor, shame, and moral responsibility, access to psychiatric services, and cultural acceptance of biomedical approaches to mental health treatment, combine to lead Indian families to hide family members with severe psychosis within their homes (taking on the majority of caregiver burdens) may attach a stigma to seeking help from a counselor”. (Cifti, Jones, & Corrigan, 2012).
Distrust and inaccessibility are the other reasons why culturally diverse clients are less likely to avoid the counseling process. Predominantly white counselors may not be seen by the culturally diverse client to possess the knowledge, understanding, or awareness to be able to effectively understand things like their social norms and heritage. This distrust can will then prevent that client from even seeking help outside of their group. Inaccessibility related to language barriers, costs, and services actually being available where the client lives can be reasons that the culturally diverse client never seeks out counseling. (Hays & Erford).
There are some things that a counselor can do to reduce a culturally diverse client from avoiding or terminating treatment. One of the first things should be is for the counselor to educate themselves on different cultures and also to see value in every culture. Counselors also need to be aware of how their own culture can cause them to have biases as well as the view that their values and culture are superior. This process should begin from within, but should grow to advocating and educating others on improving their understanding of how to best work with clients from different cultures.
