Counseling is not a value-free human endeavor. All counseling is intimately involved with cultural, moral, and ethical values related to the three major spheres of life:
the educational/vocational dimension, the marital and family dimension, and the social/cultural dimension. Both counselors and counselees bring to the counseling relationship deeply cherished values concerning education, work, marriage and family issues, and the individual’s obligations and responsibilities to those in his or her immediate environment as well as those incumbent upon him or her as a citizen.
Generally speaking, value issues become critical in the counseling process when one of the following situations occurs.
The values of the counselee and the counselor are different.
The values of the counselee are causing some diffi culty in his or her environ- ment.
The only value that may appear overtly in a counseling session is the dignity and respect that both participants reveal in their treatment of one another. However, other values are usually implicit in the relationship and are not obvious, principally because both the counselee and the counselor are working under the same value system and do not need to discuss them.
Awareness of his/her own cultural values and biases
The earlier segment told us how it is important for the counselor to be aware of his or her self, feelings, and thinking patterns. This awareness is a vital element in learning to work with culturally different students whose backgrounds differ from that of the counselor. It is important for counselors to be aware of their own socio- cultural backgrounds, assumptions, biases, values, and perspectives with regard to culturally different students. Only then will the counselor be able to work effectively with them. Issues such as racism, sexism, casteism, economic and social classes, and other realities have to be understood in depth if they want to understand diversity and the experiences of counselees from diverse backgrounds.
Critical self-examination may sometimes be threatening to the counselors because it involves their beliefs, biases, and feelings related to cultural differences.
As counselors are products of their own culture. they are conditioned by it and operate from that worldview. They should recognize the impact of their beliefs on their ability to respect others different from themselves.
It then becomes very important for counselors to look into their inscape and explore their own values, beliefs, and assumptions about culturally different individuals, their behaviors, and lifestyles. Counselors need to learn to respect the cultural differences of their counselees. If not there is more likelihood of counselors imposing their values and standards on culturally different counselees. Skilled
counselors are sensitive and actively engaged in avoiding discrimination, prejudices, and stereotyping.
Counseling in an educational institution may bring the counselor face-to-face with his or her own value biases. If this is not identifi ed and taken care of in the initial stages, she may fi nd that the chances for successful interactions are majorly compromised. If she needs to help in broadbasing the use of counseling services by the students in various educational institutions, she will have to pay serious attention to her own values and belief systems.
When one begins to understand the world, one will start with the history, experiences, values, and lifestyles of culturally different counselees. An awareness of the counselees’ historical and cultural background should be understood in the current social context relating to perceived racial, gender, cultural, and other differences. It is crucial that the counselor relates fi rst to the interpretations of experiences that the student provides in terms of the counselees’ background, the frame of reference, and norms of social behavior (Chandras, 1997).
The counselee needs to experience a sense of freedom in order to express and then explore his or her feelings and other sensitive issues surrounding a problem.
For effective counseling, a suitable psychological climate should be established where both the counselor and the counselee are able to appropriately and accurately send and receive both verbal and non verbal messages (Chandras, 1997; Sue & Sue, 2003) , it is then that the culturally different counselee will experience the freedom that is necessary to initiate a productive counseling relationship. Only through accurate empathic understanding of the counselees’ world can the counselor create a positive psychological climate.
Diffi culty communicating with others due to a language barrier, style of dress, skin color, and physical appearance, all are factors which contribute to the counselee’s stress and inability to involve him or herself in the counseling process. The counselor needs to be sensitive to that; and if necessary, refer the counselee to someone who can provide the necessary help.
Special attention should be given in order to develop a constructive and empathic relationship when dealing with culturally different counselees. This means not only fostering the relevant necessary attitudes and behaviors, but also avoiding those that will foster a negative or destructive relationship with the counselee. A counselor who continually shows behaviors that are judgmental, non-empathic, defensive, sexist, or argumentative is not fostering a positive trusting relationship. The counselor should avoid these characteristics and behaviors and exhibit other qualities that will foster a positive relationship with students.
Building a positive trusting relationship with culturally different counselees require the counselor to have certain characteristics:
Empathy
Openness Pragmatism
High internal reality Good emotional health
Awareness of and keeping abreast of current world issues Nonjudgmental nature
Warmth Acceptance Competence
When dealing with a such a counselee, a counselor will do well do follow the rules of interaction so as to not frighten away the counselee or make him or her feel uncomfortable in the situation (Chandras, 2000):
1. The counselor must only ask the most relevant question. This will not threaten the counselee. Too many personal questions asked initially will deter the counselee from feeling free to self-disclose.
2. The counselor’s preparation of the counselee is of utmost importance in the Indian situation. As the fi eld of counseling is not very well established, the counselees may come to the counselor for “prescription.” If the counselor is from a different cultural or religious background the counselee may be frightened. Therefore, she must be readied for the process. The counselor should explain the stages of counseling, what happens during counseling, and the need for verbal disclosure.
3. The counselor should focus on the specifi c problem brought in by the counselee and help develop his or her own goals for counseling. These goals should refl ect the counselor’s understanding of the counselee’s culture and value system. Any goal that requires one to abandon their cultural background could be perceived as a very threatening event. If the goal is to be pursued at all, the counselor must tread very carefully, and help the counselee process her feelings and thoughts regarding the goal with sensitivity. For example, it would be very diffi cult for an abused woman in the Indian setting, and that too from lower socioeconomic strata to leave her husband who abuses her.
4. In India, the counselor should play an active or direct role because most culturally different counselees have an external locus of control. Due to historical and cultural reasons, compliance is valued more than cooperation.
Most people are trained to obey the rules rather than understand them.
Thus, when a counselee seeks help, it is likely that she seeks more of advice and direction rather than help in independently processing her feelings and situation.
5. The counselor should fully analyze the environmental concerns of the counselee. Any process that goes against her views of the world will be resisted. And the entire counseling process will be nullifi ed. The counselor should go with the fl ow of the counselee and then seek to help make changes. The counselee my perceive drastic changes as very threatening and see them as impossible. This will result in the counselee losing confi dence in the process or even in the counselor herself.
Cultural issues in India that counselors need to be aware of In India we are passing through an unenviable phase of transition. There is a tendency to cling to past values and simultaneously crave for things, which are not consonant with the past values. This has resulted in an identity crisis, particularly in the youth. The changes in our social systems, the forceful advent of the western media in our lives, and the world getting reduced to a global village is making the people very anxious, especially today’s youth. They are torn between the values they are presented with in society and the values that they have been taught to uphold by their parents. This has resulted in uncertainty as to what values to hold and what to follow. Parents are their wit’s end. They are confused as to how to help their children; they are fi nding it more and more diffi cult to compete with the outside forces in infl uencing their children. This creates the parent–child gap that is tearing several families apart.
Another issue that is causing a rift in family relationships is the breakdown of the joint family system, known traditionally to provide social and economic security to its individual members. The unit families are confronted with problems that they had not bargained for. This has meant for many people an increase in anxiety and stress resulting from uncertainty and isolation. The wisdom of the elders is no longer counted as one of our assets. It is a very sad situation. Thus, those problems that can be easily resolved by the intervention of our family elders now seek resolution in the courts or counselor’s offi ces.
Social change has affected not only family life but also several other things, for example, the status of women. This issue involves a change in several other types of relationships as well. These include parent–child and husband–wife relations.
Many families today are characterized by a lack of understanding even when there is no open confl ict between the generations. Sexual relation is another area which is not easy for the counselor to advise those families in which the parents have one set of standards and the children another. An interesting phenomenon increasingly becoming apparent is “ascending education” in which the young become teachers of the old. It is not uncommon to hear from the young that adults do not know about new things and that they have to learn from them.
One aspect that is becoming increasingly important is our concern and anxiety for modernization. We are engaged in a drastic movement from traditional to the
modern form of living, and by “modern” we tacitly mean westernized technological modes of living. Many aspects of this movement are of considerable concern to the counselor. What are the effects of this thrust? Is it true that the effects of rapid industrialization are the disruption of interpersonal relations, an increase in crime, alienation of the youth, disrespect for elders, sharp increase in delinquent behavior and other maladjustments? How should the counselor deal with this situation?
With advances in the fi eld of medicine, environmental hygiene and better nutrition, man’s longevity has increased. Again, the breakdown of the joint family system has a great impact on the role and status of these older people in society.
Retirement from positions of authority and prestige can be a very devastating experience. How can the “retirement-shock” be assuaged? The counselor’s role should be to assist the “senior citizens” to make optimum adjustment.
The tremendous technological progress has created problems for youth seeking employment as well as for the older people in employment. While the youth pass out from their education that has the latest technological advances incorporated into their curriculum, the older people have no idea of it. For example, the use of computers. They feel lost when asked to use a computer in their work. The youth on the other hand prove themselves very useful. But we cannot do away with the experience and wisdom of the older people. The management has a tough job when their offi ces are modernized with computers. They have to provide training for the people working there, which is expensive and time-consuming. The counselor will, therefore, have to play the role of a cultural mediator and help individuals adjust themselves to the new conditions of living.
The next issue concerns decision-making. In the western culture, autonomy and independence and the ability to stand on one’s own feet and make one’s own decisions are stressed upon. Even if the student decides to take a year off his or her studies, the individual makes it on his own. But in oriental cultures in general, and India in particular, decision-making is to a certain extent culturally determined.
A young man or a woman is expected to consult the adult members of the family in matters, such as choosing a course of study, entering a specifi c occupation or choosing a life partner. The counselor should remember to include the parents and/or other signifi cant members of the family when the counselee has to make a decision.
The counselor has to be mature enough to strike an appropriate balance and help the youth to have sound values. The counselor could have problems with his counselees who may be struggling with the new values and trying to cling to the past values. This may lead to a clash between loyalty to old values and the desire to pursue new values. The counselee’s value structures are thus of a crucial nature and the counselor has to work in terms of his own value structure, which may not be similar to that of the counselees.
As has been mentioned earlier, the attitude toward women has undergone a considerable change. They are no longer confi ned to their homes but are taking up careers, which earlier were exclusive only to men. The counselor, therefore, should not look askance at a female counselee who does not propose to enter into matrimony or one who proposes to enter such fi elds as mountaineering, forestry, and the like. The counselor would do well to present the facts in full and not try to infl uence the counselee.
The Indian attitude toward sex has been that it is looked upon as something intimate, precious, and sacred. It is not identifi ed with the fulfi llment of carnal desire. Premarital sex is considered a sin. Women are not expected to freely mix with men and they are expected to maintain a certain distance. Questions, such as what should be done about premarital sex, sex outside marriage, bigamous relations, etc., loom large. The bias in the favor of males in this regard is still upheld in most Indian societies. The man is virile but a woman is promiscuous. Though one should admit, this attitude is fast disappearing in urban, educated societies. Different standards for men and women create avoidable confusion, confl ict, and also crisis.
The counselor must of necessity widen his fi eld of work to include the new problems, which are surfacing as a result of rapid change. If the counselor, is understood to be a culture interpreter, culture mediator, and an agent for culture change, he must of necessity move into a wider area (of human life) and make it the canvas for his work.
When the counselee and the counselor have different values regarding an issue that is relevant to the counseling relationship, the counselor needs to remain aware of these differences and respect the counselee’s right to his or her own values about a particular issue. India is a pluralistic society, and counselors must work within that system.
Because the goal of any counseling relationship is to help the counselee resolve his or her own problem, you should, if at all pos sible, try to work within the counselee’s frame of reference and value system to fi nd a solution. However, sometimes you may fi nd that it is impossible to do this. When this occurs, the confl ict should be discussed openly with the counselee, and if further counseling proves impossible, a referral to another counselor is mandated.
When the counselor’s value system is causing the counselee diffi culty, the counsel- ing is clearly value dominated. Again the counselor must remember that the overall goal of the process is to help the counselee help himself or herself. Therefore, you need to help the counselee discuss his or her values in the counselee’s own environ- ment, and help the counselee resolve the diffi culty or cope with the situa tion in a more effective way.