It must be acknowledged that counsellors and therapists may hold assumptions and beliefs about attitudes towards culturally and racially different individuals that might be over simplistic, judgemental and discriminatory. Counsellors must face challenges such as understanding their own past on their assumptions about culture, identity and morals. They must understand the discriminatory nature and power imbalance of the relationship between dominant and minority groups in society also and the perpetuation of such practices (Lago, 2006). Palmer (2006) asks the question whether or not white people should counsel black people at all. He claims that in doing so the white counsellor is symbolically validating the erroneous and derogatory view that black individuals are inferior and without the capability to resolve difficulties. The author states a worrying point, if ethnic minority groups are immediately considered particularly vulnerable from out the outset, purely by the colour of their skin (as Palmer simply talks about ‘black clients’) then they are immediately lacking a sense of equality. Not only is the black client disempowered by the symbolism of being helped by a ‘dominant’ ethnicity but could also be disempowered by the counselling profession producing literature claiming that the black clients need to be counselled by black counsellors to receive equality and empowerment. Race and culture are obviously very different in nature, the colour of the client’s skin is notably less likely to impact the therapeutic aims of the counselling process than the culture, religion and language to which they belong.
Annissa Chung (2006) describes her experiences as a bicultural counsellor, and the challenges faced by counsellors and psychotherapists exceeding the matters of racism and oppression. Her counselling of bicultural clients from a bicultural perspective has highlighted issues of professional practice that are rarely addressed in literature of this field. Chung argues that assumptions and prejudices are informed by the outward appearance of race, relative to Palmer’s (2006) suggestion of the symbolic perpetuation of oppression with a white counsellor and black client which, in itself, could be considered such an assumption and prejudice. Chung describes how different aspects of the person centred approach are more important with certain cultures than with others. Roger’s three core conditions of empathy, congruence and unconditional positive regard are always useful in initiating the therapeutic process. Congruence, Chung finds, is of most importance when working with white clients as the main hindrance to the relationship is her being seen as Chinese and so she strives to constantly rework her colonially innate inferiority complex so to increase her self acceptance. Chung explains that the Chinese ‘shame culture’ means that Chinese clients may require more courage to present for counselling and so the key to meeting the needs of Chinese clients is to provide adequate levels of Unconditional Positive Regard, and by making them feel accepted they feel more comfortable to disclose and explore their issues within the counselling sessions. Chung goes on to express the importance of communicating empathy in her work with clients of non white and non Chinese origin, since the cultural distance between the client and her seems greater and so the clients feeling they are being understood is of enormous magnitude (Chung, 2007).
Having addressed Britain’s diverse cultural climate and the issues faced by the counselling profession, the question remains to be answered, how is counselling responding to these changes and the current context of its multicultural society? Contributions to the field could be traced back to very birth of psychotherapy. Sigmund Freud was the first to highlight the importance of ‘the talking cure’ and the power of listening came into awareness, which is of course a central activity to the counselling process. He also warned as early as 1904 that communication and dialogue could not be left to chance (Jones, 1959 cited in Lago, 2002). The materialisation of counselling, which was strengthened by research activity since the 1940s has caused much attention to be dedicated to this element of human helping behaviour. As a result more knowledge and specialisation has surfaced in the dialogical approach to therapy (Palmer, 2006). The mass of subsequent training and literature on the subject has increased the validity of the profession and also the awareness of the importance of the dialogical approach in multicultural counselling and psychotherapy.
Owing much of its origins to Carl Rogers and his philosophy of Person Centred Therapy, empathy is a technical concept from which 20 different sub-types have since evolved, and is a huge advancement in the treatment of racially or culturally diverse clients. PCT is an empowering approach that offered respect and caring as core therapeutic conditions of counselling. The caring, listening and empathy concepts were increasingly widespread terms during the mid 1980s with many commercial businesses using these ideas to promote and advertise their services, for example the commercial release ‘Empathy Shampoo’ and advertising campaigns for ‘The Listening Bank’ and so on (Lago, 2006) interestingly parallel (historically) to the rise of immigration in the 1980s, of civil unrest as racial and cultural discrimination issues surfaced in riots in Brixton, Bristol and other areas of Britain (Sloman, 2005) .
The most influential contribution to the profession of counselling to protect counsellors and clients would most probably be the establishment of the Standing Conference for the Advancement of Counselling which was launched in 1970 and the 1970’s saw the establishment of the first full time counselling training courses in London, Swansea and Keele Universities. In 1977 the SCAC became the ‘British Association for Counselling’ and then in September 2000 became known as its current title ‘The British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy’. Membership of the BACP in 2005 had grown to approximately 22,000 from its original 1300 members in 1977 (Palmer, 2002). Some of the BACP’s most recent contributions to the sector include The Ethical Framework for Good Practice, a professional code of conduct which teamed with nationally recognised accreditation through its membership and training provides protection and guidance for counsellors, psychotherapists and clients.
In 1983, an Intercultural Therapy Centre called ‘Nafsiyat’ was set up in London by Jafar Kareem to provide specialist psychotherapy to black and other ethnic and cultural minorities. Many other agencies have since been established providing culturally sensitive counselling and mental health services. Interestingly an internet search carried out in 2005 of ‘black mental health’ returned over 410,000 results (Palmer, 2002).
A huge rise in the amount of counselling literature began in the 1980’s and with it theories on racism. These theories include Rudley’s (1989) table demonstrating the varieties of racism in counselling such as over (intentional) and convert (intentional and unintentional). Also Katz (1978) produced a training exercise enabling white people to explore the subtleties of disadvantaging mechanisms within organisations. Also several racism and prejudice scales have been published, including the Modern Racism Scale developed by McConahey in 1986, the Institutional Racism Scale developed by Barbarin and Gilbert in 1981, and the Affective Behavioural Cognitive Model of Racism developed in 1992 by D’Andrea and Daniels (Jewel, 1994).
The RACE division of the BACP, which has recently evolved into the Diversity Forum, was dedicated to the exploration and propagation of sound therapeutic practice in multi-racial and multi-cultural society. The BACP has enthusiastically embraced the concepts and challenges of ‘managing diversity’ and consequently established major staff training in this theme and ‘diversity’ has been the chosen theme for the regional consultations held through out the United Kingdom during 2004 to 2005. The Equality and Diversity Forum has introduced a working definition of ‘diversity’ that could potentially alter over time, but that has exposed the term and its concept. In 2004, the BACP formally recognised the efforts of the Terence Higgins Trust in their pioneering work in offering culturally sensitive counselling services to the black community in London by presented an ‘Outstanding Contribution’ award. Counsellors from various ethnic communities within society have transpired in larger numbers in the last twenty years, facilitating greater choice for people seeking counselling (Lago, 2006). This situation still requires further development however, as students from poorer backgrounds are substantially excluded from the entering training for the counselling and psychotherapy profession as the training costs of becoming a therapist are very considerable.
In conclusion, the ever increasing diversity of British society and the increase in levels of awareness of racism, oppression and power between dominant cultures and ethnic minorities has been paralleled by the advancements of the BACP and its professional and ethical guidelines, underpinned by the roots of counselling in Person Centred Therapy. The BACP and its Equality and Diversity Forum have contributed greatly to providing caring, respectful and culturally sensitive counselling for communities of all ethnic backgrounds. Increases in training courses available across the United Kingdom have spread the availability of opportunities in the counselling field making the profession more widely penetrable for potential counsellors and therapists of diverse races, cultures, beliefs and backgrounds, and the training courses increasingly cover the importance of self awareness of the assumptions and beliefs held that might influence the therapeutic practice in relation to discrimination and prejudice.
Words: 2,126
Reference;
Chung, A. (2007) ‘Daring to be Different’, Therapy Today, Vol 18 (4), Pg 33 - 37
Commission for Racial Equality (1999) ‘CRE Fact Sheet’ (online) Available: http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/17/82/a2.pdf (Accessed: 6/2/08)
Jewel, P. (1994) ‘Multicultural Counselling Research: An Evaluation with Proposals for Future Research’, in Palmer, S. (2002) Multicultural Counselling. London: Sage Publications
Lago, C. (2006) Race, Culture and Counselling: The Ongoing Challenge. Second Edition. Berkshire: Open University Press
Migration Watch (2007) Migration Watch UK (online) Available: http://www.migrationwatchuk.com/whoweare.asp (Accessed: 5/2/2008)
Palmer, S. (2002) Multicultural Counselling. London: Sage Publications.
Sloman, M.C. (2005) Factors Affecting Perceptions of Counselling by Clients with African and Caribbean Origins (online) Available http://www.workingpaper.ctpdc.co.uk/ms.pdf (Accessed: 2/2/08)
Andria Dawson (AT42657)
Difference and Diversity Page
