COUNSELING AND DIVERSITY

Family and Diversity Exercise

I. Return papers and discuss

II. Ask for project descriptions and last minute questions.

Tell all a bibliography will be required.

III. More sources of problems and misunderstandings in counseling diverse groups

1. Anxiety and defensiveness

-may manifest as silence, mumbling, or argumentativeness

-will happen more often if job/school coerced them

-depends on their past experiences with your race, gender

2. Mistrust

-may manifest as above or may lack any outward emotions and simply not reveal truth

-also result of personal and cultural history

-especially prevelent if you are white

3. Authority Figure Issues

-Authority figures deeply embedded with cultural meaning

-White Authoritites may be seen as uncaring, blaming

-possible strong emotional &/or subconscious reactions

-expect us not to respect their confidentiality

4. Dissociation from the true self

-many cultures learn to do this with whites, authority figures, & esp. with white auth. figures

-hide anger, disdain

-be "cool"

-use code words

-gays pretend to be heterosexuals

5. We as helpers from a different background may not have the info we need to be helpful

-don't know lifestyles

-may ask them to do something inconsistent with their communities.

6. As institutional staff, we may control rewards (parole, grades, release from hosp., priviliges) and punishments

-many in these roles simply repeat patterns of cultural oppression-trying to get clients to fit in the system, behave acceptably to inst.,

-may be expected to betray their confidences

7. Poverty

-is stressful in a constant, long-term way

-involves continual traumas-losses, hurts

-has own culture, aspects include:

day by day survival, hard to see future

cope from one crisis to another

feek lucky to keep what you have

temporariness

no privacy, overcrowding

lack of sleep common

don't be on time because they will keep you waiting

more easily labeled, jailed, poorer med. & m.h. tx.

8. Culture Shock: entering new & different cultural environment

-degree of shock varies according to degree of difference, vulnerability, resources, and other stresses

-psych. effects: insecurity, anxiety, alienation, rootlessness, mild paranoia, identity questions

-identity= sense of who we are based on roles, home, values, groups one belongs to

-as person becomes adapted to new culture, then identity crisis may reappear or worsen at times as they feel the push-pull between new & old identity and ways

-one problem is they may see it as either/or, not bicultural

-acknowledge difficulty of this transition

IV. Diverse family counseling exercise

a. Choose 3 students to be "highschool counselors" for exercise, ask to leave room. May read text while out.

b. Form rest of class into 3 families: tell them they're poor and they have a teenager in highschool

-ask them to use what they know to pick an ethnic background, family name and the names and roles of their members, both present and not

-ask to design their general history and recent events in the family

-inform they have family secrets & illegal income

c. Inform counselors that their goal is to try to help the teen to stay out of trouble and to encourage the family to help the teen do this.

d. Have counselor meet briefly with teen (5 min) and then meet with family (15 min)

e. Debriefing: have counselors share first, then family members

1. What happened?

2. What was effective?

3. What was not effective and why?

V. Family counseling- Issues with diverse groups

-in addition to what have already learned:

1. Extended, blended, nontraditional families

-parental roles may be shared, unclear, duplicated

- will need to be tolerant of unclear roles and still help them to clarify responsibilities

- will need to consider how to manage large groups

2. Cultural adaption and resistance to aculturation may be an issue of conflict within the family

-those who are aculturated may feel judged, alienated from those who are identified with the culture & v.v.

-can't take sides, infer that one is "right"

-must encourage tolerance, communication

3. Family may have secrets that they don't want to reveal to you because

-they don't expect you to understand

-they fear you might report them

-it might be helpful to explore their hx. w. white authority figures

4. Their culture may value specific roles in the family differently than yours

-women, girl children given less rights

-children given difficult work

- physical abuse may be permitted

- need to explain what is illegal and what you might have to report (limits of conf.)

- you may explain how your values are different as long as you validate their rights to believe differently