7

MULTICULTURAL PRACTICE IN
PSYCHOLOGY- I
Unit Structure
7.0 Objectives
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Multicultural counselling: counsellor‟s self-awareness and
counsellor‟s awareness of the client‟s worldview, developing
multicultural competencies and culturally appropriate interventions.
7.2.1 Counsellor‟s self-awareness and counsellor‟s awareness of the
client‟s worldview
7.2.2 Developing multicultural competencies and culturally
appropriate interventions
7.2.3 Developing Appropriate Intervention Strategies and
Techniques
7.3 Summary
7.4 Questions
7.5 References

7.0 OBJECTIVES
After studying this unit, you will be able to understand
 Why it is important for a counsellor to have self-awareness in
multicultural counselling
 What is meant by awareness of clients‟ worldview and its importance
in multicultural counselling
 What are the various intervention strategies and techniques that a
counsellor can use in multicultural counselling

7.1 INTRODUCTION
Before we talk about the competencies of counsellors practicing
multicultural counseling or therapy, we must once again look at what is
meant by multicultural counseling/therapy.
“Multicultural counseling and therapy can be defined as both a helping
role and process that uses modalities and defines goals consistent with the
life experiences and cultural values of clients, recognizes client identities
to include individual, group, and universal dimensions, advocates the use
of universal and culture-specific strategies and roles in the healing
process, and balances the importance of individualism and collectivism in
the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of client and client systems.” (D.
74 W. Sue & Torino, 2005).
The inferences that can be drawn from this definition are - Multicultural Practice In
Psychology- I
1. Helping role and process:
Generally, in a clinical setting, a counsellor helps the client by being
passive and having a very objective attitude. Though such a passive stance
does help the client, a counsellor practicing multicultural counselling
needs to use more variety of techniques to help the client such as teaching,
consulting, and advocacy, keeping in mind the cultural background of the
client.

2. Consistent with life experiences and cultural values:

Whatever goals and the methods of achieving those goals are decided by
the counsellor they should be congruent to the cultural, ethnic, gender, and
sexual orientation of the clients, coming from different cultures. For
example, traditionally, counsellors are discouraged to give any advice to
the client and let the solutions come from the client himself. But some
clients, having a specific cultural background, benefit more if advice and
suggestions are used to help them.

3. Individual, group, and universal dimensions of existence:

It is well-established fact that each individual‟s identity is made up of
three things - individualism (uniqueness), group (our family and
community), and universal dimension (human attributes). A counsellor
practicing multicultural counselling must pay attention to all these three
components in totality otherwise, he might miss out on any important
aspect of the client‟s identity.

4. Universal and culture-specific strategies:

In multicultural counselling, it is believed that apart from using the
techniques of helping a client that is concerned about basic human values
and is common in all cultures and societies, a client responds best when
strategies used to help him are congruent specifically with his culture. For
example, Asian American clients respond well when a more directive or
active approach to counselling is used, such as advising or giving
suggestions. On the other hand, African American clients respond well
when a counsellor makes authentic self-disclosure.

5. Individualism and collectivism:

Individualistic culture differs from collectivist culture. In a collectivist
culture, an individual is deeply entrenched in his family, people who are
significant others for him, community, and culture. A counsellor who
realizes this and takes into consideration the social and cultural context of
the client‟s behaviour will have a better view of his client‟s problems,
especially clients coming from diverse cultural backgrounds.

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Multiculturalism Theory 6. Client and client systems:
Though traditionally, the counsellor needs to pay attention to the problems
of the client in exclusion of its contexts. In such a situation, the counsellor
helps a client to gain insight into his problems and learn different
behaviors to cope with those problems. However, there might be a
situation in which a client belongs to a minority community and has been
the victim of racial prejudice or discrimination in school, on the job, in the
neighbourhood, in governmental policies, in the judicial system, and even
in mental health organizations. In such a scenario, it is imperative for a
counsellor to pay more attention to changing the client‟s systems instead
of paying attention to developing the client‟s adaptive behaviours.

7.2 MULTICULTURAL COUNSELLING:

COUNSELLOR’S AWARENESS
7.2.1 Counsellor’s self-awareness and counsellor’s awareness of the
client’s worldview
Counsellor’s Self-Awareness:
All training programs for counsellors emphasize on potential counsellors,
therapists, and social workers to have self-awareness. They must be aware
of their own prejudices, biases, values, or mental blocks that may hinder
their optimum ability to help a client. In such training programs, while
trying to enhance the self-awareness of the therapists at an intellectual
level, it is much easier to make them understand how their own culture
influences their judgement about what is normal and abnormal, the goals
they help a client to set for himself are actually influenced by the cultural
values of the therapist and the values they consider important for human
behavior.
The problem comes when therapists have to realize the emotional aspect
of their beliefs and the affects that they have for cultures that are different
from their own. For example, when they have to deal with the emotional
aspect of their attitudes towards racism, sexism, sexual orientation of
people, ageism, etc. It becomes emotionally challenging for a White Euro-
American therapist to realize that at a personal or professional level, he
has been dealing with a non-white or person of colour in a racist,
oppressive, and discriminating manner. For a White person, to be an
effective counsellor, he must be aware of his own biases and values and
work through his own feelings of guilt and fear that is connected with such
biases.

Understanding the Worldview of Culturally Diverse Clients:

Counsellors and therapists must understand the empathize with the
worldview of their clients. Therapists need not accept these worldviews as
their own. It only means that they can understand and accept others‟
worldviews without evaluating them in any way and by being non-
judgmental about it. This process of understanding and accepting others‟
worldviews is known as „cultural role taking‟. A counsellor belonging to
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the majoritarian population, such as being a Whiteman, has to realize that Multicultural Practice In
Psychology- I
his personal experiences are very different from those of others belonging
to racial minorities and he can not think or feel or behave in the same way
as they do. It is not possible for him to empathize with them affectively,
however, he can empathize with them cognitively. Clients belonging to
minorities can be non-whites, women, LGBT, politically marginalized
groups, etc.
By going through, the process of cultural role-taking, he can acquire
practical knowledge about their daily living experiences and the nature of
their cultural background, their socio-political system, etc.
7.2.2 Developing multicultural competencies and culturally
appropriate interventions:
Sue (2001) offered a multidimensional model of cultural competence to
describe multicultural competencies. This model conceptualized three
important aspects of multicultural competencies. These are:
a.) specific racial/ cultural group perspectives
b.) components of cultural competence
c.) foci of cultural competence
Let us look at each of these dimensions.

Dimension 1: Specific Racial/ Cultural Group Perspectives:

Initially while talking about multiculturalism, Sue‟s model identified only
five major groups to discuss racial or ethnic categories. These groups were
European Americans, Native Americans, Latino Americans, Asian
Americans, and African Americans. But later on, multiculturalism
included gender, sexual orientation, physical ability/ disability, age,
socioeconomic status, religion, etc. also as important reference groups.
Sue emphasized that a multicultural counsellor must be knowledgeable
and sensitive to the worldviews of these diverse cultural groups.
Sue also believed that therapists should also be aware that a therapist‟s
theoretical orientation can influence their worldview. For example, Euro-
American psychotherapies believe that a therapist should not accept any
gift from the client as it puts them under obligation, but there are some
Asian cultures where it is well accepted normal tradition to give and
accept gifts in helping relationships. Clients from different racial or ethnic
minority groups may view therapists practicing traditional mainstream
therapies as incompetent. A competent therapist needs to use both cultural
specific as well as cultural -universal therapies to be competent.

Dimension 2: Components of Cultural Competence:

Another competency that a multicultural therapist must have is his
awareness of his own biases and assumptions about human behavior,
especially of members of diverse cultural groups. In other words, the
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Multiculturalism Theory therapist must be aware of his own cultural conditioning that influences
his own beliefs and values. He must have knowledge of the worldviews of
other diverse cultural group members. He should also be able to use
culture-specific intervention strategies while working with clients of
diverse cultures. Apart from these three dimensions, the therapist must
also be aware of the racial identity of the client to realize the socio-
political factors that may be influencing his behavior.

Dimension 3: The Foci of Cultural Competence:

The multidimensional model of cultural competence further proposes that
a therapist should not restrict himself/herself to thinking about the
individual only. He should also think about the profession of psychology
in general, and intervention at the organizational level as well as at the
societal level. Even if a therapist is sensitive to cultural differences, it will
have no impact if the organization that he is employed with has a
monoculture, and would not allow him to use his sensitivity to cultural
competency. The same is true for society at a macro level, where inherent
monoculturalism makes his interpretation of reality a biased one. Let us
look at each of the foci points that we have mentioned here:

Focus 1: Individual:
It is a well-established fact that no human being is born with any kind of
prejudice or bias. They are acquired through social learning. All therapists
have also gone through social conditioning and acquired certain
prejudices, biases, and values. These biases put hurdles in their becoming
culturally competent. To remove these hurdles, they must realize and
accept that their own biases and values do have a significant influence on
their thoughts, emotions, and actions even at the unconscious level and
they are personally responsible for their actions. They must become free of
their biases not only at the cognitive level but also at the emotional level.
They need to change their attitudes, beliefs, emotions, and actions towards
people of different cultural groups.

Focus 2: Professional
It is not just the therapists, but the very profession of psychology is also
culture-bound and has a base in a Eurocentric perspective. The very
definition of psychology as a study of mind and behavior appears to be
biased and in contrast to the philosophies of other cultures. Asian cultures
emphasize collectivism and interpersonal constancy, which is totally in
contrast to individualism and interpersonal freedom. To be professionally
and culturally competent, psychologists need to revisit their definitions of
what is normal and abnormal from different cultural points of view. The
professional standards of ethics in mental health practices, that are seeped
into a predominant monoculture, must become compatible with
multicultural worldviews.

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Focus 3: Organizational Multicultural Practice In
Psychology- I
Most mental health workers are working for some organization or the
other. Every organization has its own organizational or institutional
practices, policies, and structures. These policies and practices may be
discriminatory and oppress certain groups. Especially in a monocultural
organization, organizational policies, and procedures may not allow
people from diverse groups to have equal rights to avail opportunities and
justice. Even mental health services provided may not be equal. In that
case, efforts must be made to change such policies.

Focus 4: Societal
Societies having monoculture may have social policies such as racial
profiling, misinformation in educational material, inequalities in health
care, etc. Such social policies can be harmful to the physical as well as
mental health of minority group members. Mental health workers must
work towards changing such social policies. They must not consider the
client only as an individual but as a part of a larger social system.
Sometimes, the problems of a client can be due to failure in systematic
processes. In such a case, intervention at the individual level will be
insufficient. The emphasis should be on changing the environment instead
of trying to change the client. Traditionally, psychology has emphasized
on individual and not developed any plan of action to bring larger changes
in society as such.

7.2.3 Developing Appropriate Intervention Strategies and Techniques:

A mental health worker needs to be aware of and sensitive to the diverse
cultural backgrounds of the client and also realize that his own training has
seeped into the predominant individualized culture. Western theories and
mental health practices are ineffective when it comes to clients from other
cultures. For example, in countries like India and China, there is a lot of
cultural emphasis to put family, community, and even country before self.
In different cultures, the very definition of what is normal and abnormal
differs.
Whether and how a person will seek help also differs from culture to
culture. In many cultures, especially Asian cultures, seeking help for
mental health issues attracts stigma and brings a bad name to the family.
There is no such stigma attached to seeking help for physical ailments. So,
Asian- Americans may seek help only as a last resort, and that too not for
mental health issues but for psychosomatic issues.
Finally, when a client from different cultural background seeks help from
a mental health professional, the techniques used by the mental health
worker might be in contrast to the value system of the client. The client
may find them very oppressive and may either resist or discontinue
counselling sessions after one or two sessions. There might be a
communication gap between the therapist and the client due to different
cultural backgrounds. For example, research has highlighted that

79
Multiculturalism Theory a.) economically and educationally weaker clients are not amenable to
„talk therapy‟.
b.) Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans, and American Indians are not
comfortable with self-disclosure. It is against their cultural values.
c.) Racial and sexual orientation minorities may not be comfortable with
self-disclosure due to the socio-political environment.
d.) Clients from Asia culture and Hispanics may prefer a directive and
active type of intervention approach rather than a non-directive and
passive type of approach.
This makes it imperative for a multicultural therapist to be aware of both
universal as well as culture-specific perspectives of intervention
techniques. Let us see some of these factors that a multicultural therapist
must keep in mind while choosing an intervention technique.

Communication Styles:
The first and foremost factor that determines the effectiveness of therapy
is communication between the therapist and the client. Both therapist and
the client should be able to send and receive, verbal as well as nonverbal
precise messages in an appropriate manner. Many therapists pay attention
only to the accuracy of communication (content) and not to the
appropriateness of the communication (how it is said). Traditional
counselling techniques encourage a therapist to use direct and
confrontational techniques to help the client, but an Asian American or
American Indian client may find such confrontational approaches to be
very rude, insensitive, and even insulting. Paying attention to how the
message is communicated is a very important aspect of the intervention.
Many communication experts believe that nonverbal communication
forms almost 40 percent of communication and can strengthen or
neutralize the content of the message. Communication style assumes more
significance in face-to-face communication.
Some of the facets of communication style are:
• whether the conversation starts smoothly or in fits and starts,
• whether both parties or a single one interrupts each other
continuously,
• preference for topics to be discussed or to be avoided,
• the depth of involvement of both parties,
• the form of interaction (ritual, repartee, argumentative, persuasive,
etc.),
• the channel of communication (verbal vs. nonverbal) used
predominantly.

80
All these facets can also be called social rhythms that form the base of the Multicultural Practice In
Psychology- I
speech and actions of a person. These communication styles, especially
nonverbal get greatly influenced by the race, gender, ethnicity, and culture
of the person. A Euro-American therapist may assume certain behaviors or
ways of speaking to be universal and have the same meaning for everyone,
but that may not be the case.

Nonverbal Communication:
While interacting with a client of a different culture, therapists do face
problems in communication due to language, cultural factors, class, and
even because of inefficiency in understanding nonverbal communication.
Nonverbal communication can either facilitate or hinder communication.
For example, when a lady‟s eyes become steely and her body stiffens and
she says „I am not angry‟, there is a stark contrast in her verbal and
nonverbal communication.
Different people interpret the same nonverbal behaviour in different
manners. For example, if a lady lowers her eyes when a man comes close
to her and moves away a bit, one observer may interpret it as a dislike for
the approaching person, while another observer may interpret it as
shyness. Another problem is that we are not consciously paying attention
to nonverbal communication when it takes place but at the unconscious
level, it does influence a person‟s evaluation and behavior.
Another complexity of nonverbal communication is that it can take place
at all five sensory levels and also it can be in the form of artifactual
communication, i.e., it is expressed through our clothing, hairstyle, display
of other material things, etc.)

Proxemics:
Proxemics refers to the perception of personal and interpersonal space.
Different cultures have different norms for the use of physical space in
interpersonal interaction. In Western cultures, more distance is maintained
between two interacting people, especially if they are not in an intimate
relationship. Hall (1969) described four interpersonal distance zone as -
Intimate - contact to 18 inches
Personal - 1.5 ft. to 4 ft.
Social - 4 ft - 12 ft
Public speech - more than 12 ft.
In Western culture, if these norms are violated, it may generate feelings of
anger and fear and may lead to flight, withdrawal, and conflict. On the
other hand, in Asian cultures, much more proximity is permitted by
cultural norms and if people maintain more distance than stipulated by the
norm, it is considered a sign of rejection, aloofness, being too formal, or a
desire for not communicating, etc. The therapist must be aware of racial
and cultural norms. applicable to the conversational distance, of the client.
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Multiculturalism Theory Kinesics:
Kinesics refers to bodily movements, including facial expressions, bodily
posture, gestures, eye contact, etc. Kinesics is also guided by cultural
norms. Western cultural norms consider the display of facial expressions
as a sign of weakness, while in Asian cultures, it is a sign of warmth and
permissible.

Paralanguage:
Paralanguage refers to other vocal cues given out in communication. For
example, the tone of voice, pauses, hesitation, silences, rate of speech,
inflections, etc. It also includes the way people greet each other and
address each other, taking turns in speaking. For example, silence in a
conversation is interpreted differently in different cultures. It may be
interpreted as a mark of agreement, politeness, respect, desire for privacy,
or plain rudeness. A multicultural therapist must be aware of these
different meanings of silence so that he does not misinterpret his client‟s
silence. In Chinese and Japanese culture, silence in a conversation does
not mean that the speaker has finished speaking and the other person in the
conversation can start speaking. Instead, it means that the speaker has
made a certain point and is preparing to make another point in the
conversation. Similarly, there are different cultural norms for frankness,
volume, and intensity of speech in conversation. Paralanguage can
indicate lots of characteristics of people such as age, gender, race,
emotions, etc.

7.3 SUMMARY
To be an effective multicultural counsellor or a therapist, it is essential for
the counsellor to be aware of his own prejudices, biases, values, or mental
blocks that may interfere with his intervention program when he is dealing
with a client from a different culture. He must realize that the
interpretation of what is normal or abnormal is coloured by one‟s cultural
values and there is no objective definition of normality. So, it is very
important to understand the client‟s perspective of normality and his world
views too. The therapist must understand and accept clients‟ worldviews
without adopting them as his own worldviews. He must be just aware that
his worldview differs from the client‟s worldview and both are valid. Sue
has developed a multidimensional model of cultural competencies which
includes three dimensions - specific racial or cultural group perspectives,
components of cultural competence, and foci of cultural competence.
The first dimension emphasizes that the therapist must be aware of the
theoretical orientation of his own training can influence his own
worldview and intervention strategy. A competent therapist needs to use
both cultural specific as well as cultural -universal therapies to be
competent.
The second dimension emphasizes that the therapist must be aware of his
own cultural conditioning that influences his own beliefs and values

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The third dimension emphasizes that a therapist should not restrict Multicultural Practice In
Psychology- I
himself/herself to thinking about the individual only. He should also think
about the profession of psychology in general, and intervention at the
organizational level as well as at the societal level.
Lastly, the therapist must realize that a client from a different cultural
background may find the techniques used by the mental health worker
very oppressive as they are in contrast to the value system of the client.
In such a scenario, he may resist or discontinue counselling sessions after
one or two sessions. The therapist must pay attention to those contrasts as
well as also be aware that even communication style is influenced by
cultural context.

7.4 QUESTIONS
1. What is multicultural counselling?
2. Write in detail about the counsellor‟s self-awareness and awareness of
the client‟s worldview.
3. What are multicultural competencies?
4. In multicultural counselling, what are the factors contributing to the
effectiveness of intervention strategies

7.5 REFERENCES
 Elrich, H. (2003). The Social Psychology of Prejudice: A Systematic
Theoretical Review and Propositional Inventory of the American.
New York, Wiley.
 Gamst, G.C., Liang, C.T.H., Der‐ Karabetian, A. (2011). Handbook
of Multicultural Measures, La Verne: SAGE
 Garrett McAulifee & Associates (2008). Culturally Alert Counselling:
A Comprehensive Introduction, Sage Publications.
 Sue, D.W., Sue, D. (2012). Counselling The Culturally Diverse:
Theory and Practice (6th Ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
 Sue, Sue D.W. (2006) Multicultural Competencies: Individual and
Organizational Development, Sage Publication, New Delhi.

*****

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 8
MULTICULTURAL PRACTICE IN
PSYCHOLOGY - II
Unit Structure
8.0 Objectives
8.1 Introduction
8.2 Barriers to multicultural counselling.
8.3 Managing Diversity and Conflicts in Organizations.
8.4 Summary
8.5 Questions
8.6 References

8.0 OBJECTIVES
After studying this unit, you will be able to understand
 Various barriers to multicultural counselling
 Management of diversity
 Management of conflicts in the organization

8.1 INTRODUCTION
In the previous units we have discussed various competencies that a
multicultural counsellor must have. As an extension of that, it is necessary
for a multicultural counsellor to be aware of what can be the pitfalls or
barriers to multicultural counselling. Some of these barriers are culture-
bound values, class-bound values, and language barriers. Though these
three barriers are mentioned separately they are interconnected. Let us see
each one of them.

8.2 BARRIERS TO MULTICULTURAL COUNSELLING

Culture-bound values:
First of all, let us understand what is meant by culture. It is an abstract
term that includes the behavior, beliefs, values, skills, tools, and customs
of the people. It also includes institutions in which people are born in a
society. Since culture is a learnt way of life, one can belong to more than
one culture. A person may be born in one culture and later on, may
migrate to another society and learn the culture of that society too. Thus, a
person can be bicultural. Being bicultural can be advantageous or
disadvantageous. People who can‟t form dual ethnic identities due to
bicultural membership are called marginal groups (Stonequist,1937).

84
People from cultures other than majoritarian culture (mostly Euro- Multicultural Practice In
American culture or White man‟s culture) are considered to have Psychology- II

dysfunctional values and beliefs. These dysfunctional beliefs and values

are considered to be disabilities, which a person must be ashamed of and
must try to overcome. Racial and ethnic minorities are given the
impression that being different from the mainstream is like being sick and
needing treatment. In fact, the critics point out that traditional therapy
appears to be helping the political narrative that those who differ from
majoritarian and dominant society are deviants and need to be ignored,
discriminated or punished.
Traditional therapy originated in Western countries and emphasizes
individualism. But in many Asian societies, there is more emphasis on
identifying oneself as a member of a group. For example, in the Japanese
language, there is no word for „I‟. In India, one of the biggest punishments
that could be given to a person or family was to disown that individual or
family. Disowning or boycotting a person indicated that the targeted
individual loses his identity. Members of Western and Asian cultures
differ in their emotional experiences also. For example, if a person
belonging to individualistic culture does something wrong, he will feel
guilty (an individual phenomenon) while an Asian person will feel
ashamed (a phenomenon that spreads to his family as he brings shame to
the family name). Similarly, when an Asian patient says he will make a
decision only after consulting his family, the therapist may mistake it to be
a sign of immaturity because he has been trained to help clients make their
own decisions responsibly. The therapist does not realize that in a
collectivist society, making decisions in consultation with other family
members is considered to be a mature and responsible way of making
decisions.

Verbal/Emotional/Behavioral Expressiveness:
Therapy is basically talk therapy where clients express themselves
verbally, emotionally as well as behaviourally. A therapist practicing
traditional therapy encourages a client to understand their feelings and
then verbalize their emotional reactions. In fact, some therapists believe
that a specific emotion exists in a client only if the client expresses that
emotion. The therapist expects a client to actively assert himself and
uphold his rights, being active and not a passive being. But all these
expectations of a therapist are disadvantageous for a client who does not
belong to European culture that emphasizes individualism. For example,
while American culture values verbalization of thoughts and emotions,
Japanese and Chinese cultures ethos teach children not to speak unless
they are spoken to or asked to speak. The flow of communication in
Japanese and Chinese culture is from higher social status people to lower
social status people, from older people to younger people. Younger or
lower social status people are expected to respond with silence to show
their respect. This may apply to therapy sessions too, where a client may
respond with silence to show respect to the therapist. A therapist, who is
not aware of these cultural norms may misinterpret the client‟s silence as
the client has low intelligence and the ability to articulate the answers.
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Multiculturalism Theory In traditional therapy, one of the most important goals is that the client
should be able to express his emotions. But, in some Asian cultures, a
person is considered wise and mature, only if he/she can control his/her
emotions. Thus, the value passed on is to control and hide emotions as you
grow up. This applies to all kinds of emotions such as disappointment,
frustration, anger, love, etc. The therapist who is unaware of these cultural
norms may think the client is not spontaneous or is repressed or reserved
or reticent.

Self-Disclosure (Openness and Intimacy):

Traditional therapy believes that self-disclosure, that is, disclosing the
most private and personal aspects of one‟s life, disclosing what a client
feels, thinks, or believes, is a sign of a healthy personality. If a client is not
ready to do self-disclosure, then he has negative personality traits of being
secretive, guarded, does not trust others, or paranoid. However, instead of
having these negative traits, a person may not disclose his most personal
details for two reasons
a.) cultural norms of his culture, and
b.) socio-political reasons.
If an Asian American or a Hispanic client talks freely about his personal
or social problems, it will have a reflection not only on him as an
individual, but also on his family. So, there might be a strong insistence
from his family not to disclose his personal matters to an outsider or to an
unknown person.
There can be socio-political reasons too for a client‟s reluctance to do self-
disclosure with a therapist. For example, it has been observed that African
Americans do not want to talk about their innermost feelings, thoughts,
and beliefs to a White therapist, because of their past sufferings due to
racism. Since white therapists are the members of a white society that has
inflicted atrocities on black people, African Americans believe that instead
of helping them, white therapists will pass on their innermost information
to white society and white society will use it against them. This emphasis
on self-disclosure in traditional therapy is at odds not only with people of
diverse cultural backgrounds but also with people belonging to lower
socio-economic classes.
Similarly, another important assumption in psychoanalytic therapy is that
if a client gets insight into what his actual problems are and what are their
causes, will be a better-adjusted individual. However, it is reported that
clients from lower socioeconomic status do not value insight and even
clients from diverse cultures are not always benefitted from having more
insight. Clients from lower socioeconomic status do not have time to sit
back and review the causes of their behavior. They are more focused on
making both ends meet. Many cultures, such as Asian cultures do not
encourage self-exploration techniques to understand one‟s own problems.
In fact, in many such cultures, it is believed that too much thinking causes
problems instead of solving them.
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Ambiguity: Multicultural Practice In
Psychology- II
Another key feature of traditional psychotherapy is that it is not structured
and there is a lot of ambiguity built into it. People from a minority group
or from diverse cultures may find this baffling and mysterious way of
treatment. This type of therapeutic process may cause them confusion and
anxiety. For example, Hispanic culture has structured social relationships
and specifically defined patterns of communication. Therefore, Hispanics
may find the ambiguity and unstructuredness of traditional therapy very
stressful.

Class bound Values:

Research studies have reported that people from lower socioeconomic
classes are more likely to suffer from depression, a lower sense of control,
and poorer physical health. It is important for therapists to be aware of
factors that cause extra stress and hardship in the day-to-day lives of
people who do not have sufficient resources. Due to poverty, struggle to
survive, and day-to-day hardships, these people tend to develop a feeling
of helplessness, inferiority complex, and dependence. A therapist
belonging to middle or higher socioeconomic status may not understand
their hardships and may not get ego involved with them.

Language Barrier:
People who migrate from one country to another country, may not be
conversant with the local language of that country or even with the
English language. In such cases, very often, for medical or legal issues,
their children play the role of a translator as they might have picked up the
local language to some degree. But this half-baked knowledge of the
language can lead to lots of adversaries such as -
i) it can harm the traditional parent-child relationship
ii) children who have just picked up English or the local language may
not have sufficient vocabulary and emotional maturity to be effective
translators
iii) by default, children get exposed to the confidential medical or
psychiatric information of the relative
iv) As a by-product of being a translator, they are saddled with emotional
responsibilities that they are not equipped to carry out.
Research studies on language have reported that proper learning of
language may be hampered if a person comes from a background where
one or both of his parents speak the native language. So, the bilingual
background of many migrated people can lead to a lot of
misunderstandings, even if they cannot speak their own native language
anymore. When a client from a minority community visits a mental health
worker, it is expected that he should report his problems in standard
English. That client may know only nonstandard English or no English at
all. For example, African Americans use a language called Black
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Multiculturalism Theory language. In this language, they tend to use shorter sentences and rely
more on nonverbal communication. But in the English language, there is
more emphasis on words and grammar rather than on nonverbal
communication. If bilingual clients are expected to express their problems
only in standard English and not use their native language, the chances are
very high that they might not be able to express many aspects of their
emotional experiences, thoughts, feelings, ad their unique situations, so
those aspects will not get covered in the treatment. Since therapy is largely
a verbal interaction, it is essential that the therapist and the client
understand each other‟s language, conceptually and grammatically.

Generalizations and Stereotypes: Some Cautions

While it is necessary for therapists to understand the basic key elements of
counselling and psychotherapy as well as be aware of the culture-specific
life values of their clients, there is a very high possibility that they may
overgeneralize these values and may develop stereotypes of people
belonging to different cultures. There are individual differences in
minority communities too just as all people belonging to majoritarian
cultures do not have the same characteristics. It is very natural for a
therapist to form an impression of the client that is in sync with his own
experiences and values. The gender and race of the client, the neatness of
the client, etc. will influence the first impression or assumptions that a
therapist makes about the client. These impressions will be based on the
therapists‟ own generalizations about human behavior. There is a very
strong possibility of these generalizations becoming stereotypes and
guiding forces to influence therapists‟ own thought processes and
behavior. Stereotypes are very strong and inflexible preconceived notions
about all people belonging to a specific group. This specific group can be
another race, gender, class, religion, sexual orientation, etc. Stereotypes
do not bother about individual differences among members of a particular
group. Stereotypes are not based on any logic or experiences of the holder
of stereotypes. If their experience throws up some contradictory
information, they distort that information to fit their stereotypes.

8.3 MANAGING DIVERSITY AND CONFLICTS IN

ORGANIZATIONS
Generally, conflict is considered to have a negative connotation, but it can
have a positive side too. Conflicts in organizations help organizations to
grow. If there is no difference of opinions, ideas, or attitudes among
employees, the organization will become stagnant and the employees will
become stagnant. So, for the growth of an organization as well as for the
growth of an individual, conflicts are necessary.
There is a very strong relationship between diversity and conflict. Conflict
in an organization can arise due to employees belonging to different races,
gender, socioeconomic status, culture, religion, sexual orientations, ages,
education levels, personalities, etc. Whatever may be the source of
conflict, the by-product of that conflict is that it generates ideas. Conflicts
are seen as problems to which solutions need to be found. This need for
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solutions triggers a variety of ideas coming from diverse employees. For Multicultural Practice In
Psychology- II
example, employees having high self-esteem present their ideas to others
without any hesitation. If there are many employees with high self-esteem
and all of them keep presenting their ideas, we will have a pile of diverse
ideas, leading to conflicts among them. But that will also help the
organization choose the best idea out of those ideas and make products
innovative and unique. Thus, diversity in ideas will help an organization to
grow. Secondly, when innovative solutions are found to the conflicts, it
can bring all those diverse high esteemed people together and true
teamwork will take place and members will be able to work together.
However, if innovative solutions are not reached for the problems, conflict
can be destructive too.
Unresolved conflicts lead to the simmering of negative feelings, and small
insignificant arguments damaging the relationships among employees.
Many conflicts, that are born from hatred, lead to the development of
“isms” that are not beneficial for anyone and organizations need to
discourage such “isms”. When hate is the root cause of conflict, it is very
difficult to find any solutions to resolve it.
One of the areas of conflict, that organizations find hard to resolve, is
sexual harassment. Sexual harassment leads to many problems such as the
productivity of the employees suffers, they tend to fall ill more often, their
confidence comes down, they may even leave the job or the organization
may have to deal with court cases filed against it. These problems take
place not only for the victim of the sexual harassment but also for those
employees who witness it happening.

Leadership Skills to Reduce Conflict Pitfalls:

To ensure that minimum conflicts take place and when conflicts do occur,
they can be dealt with immediately and amicably, it is necessary that
managers/ leaders have certain qualities. For example, they must have
 Good listening skills - This will help them to sense any subtle signs
of negative behavior and impending conflict.
 Good communication skills - They should be very constructive
while discussing these potential conflicts with their colleagues. There
are five response skills that managers can use to ensure that conflict
does not take place or can be reduced when it takes place. These skills
are -

1. Support:
A manager should express his support when he finds people of diverse
groups working together and effectively communicating in the team.

2. Clarity:
Managers can use the technique of paraphrasing to get more clarity about
the information received and the other person‟s perspective. This will help
in increasing their understanding.
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Multiculturalism Theory 3. Suggest:
Even if another person puts across his point of view or expresses anything
in no uncertain terms if a manager does not consider it to be appropriate,
he should gently but firmly suggest alternatives that are specific and
creative in nature. The manager can begin his sentences by saying „I feel
…; or „I think….‟. Humor is another way of presenting one‟s own ideas
that are different from the one presented by others and do not enhance the
conflict.

4. Request:
Every employee must be aware of the boundaries of his own role as well
as be aware of others‟ boundaries too. Encroaching on the boundaries of
another person can be a cause for conflict. However, if permission is
sought or when cooperative action needs to be taken by the employees,
people can work with a sense of shared responsibility.

5. Insist:
If there is a strong conflict that requires immediate intervention, then the
manager should be willing to actively deter people from indulging in
undesirable behavior or words. For example, we have seen representatives
of various political parties taking part in live debates on T.V. Some of
these spokespersons don‟t allow another person to speak. In such
situations, the anchor stops such persons and ensures that other panellist
can put their views across. It is a similar situation in organizations. If a
manager finds any employee dominating the conversation during the
meeting, he should immediately tell him that all need to be given chance,
or if somebody is already speaking and another person tries to speak in
between, the manager should be able to say „…. please let him finish.

Managing Conflict Diversity:

1. The Team-building Wheel:
William Sonnenschein developed a model for raising high-performing
teams. He called it the team-building wheel. It is called a wheel because
the process of building the team is non-hierarchical. According to this
model, first of all, a manager must ensure that all members accept the
differences in everyone‟s background and celebrate humanity. They
should learn to appreciate the uniqueness of each and every one and
establish the team mission. The manager should ensure that there is a
supportive climate built to achieve those team goals. Once the team starts
working and stabilizes then evaluations can be introduced. All these
components of high performing team are equally important and team
building is a continuous process.

2. Embracing Differences:
As mentioned above, all team members must acknowledge that all of us
are different from each other in many ways, and yet we are equal. If these
background differences are ignored and either the manager or the
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organization expects everyone to think, feel and behave in a similar Multicultural Practice In
Psychology- II
manner, conflicts arise. The team members must have more self-
awareness - awareness of their own prejudices, biases, and cultural values
that differ from others‟ values. If such awareness is not there, people make
unjust assumptions based on their prejudices and that breaks down
communication, further lowers performance and people start putting
spooks in each other‟s performance instead of cooperating. Finally, the
team becomes dysfunctional instead of effective. So, it is essential to
acknowledge the differences.

3. Group Discussion Exercise:

While working in a team, each member should use and practice active
listening skills. They should all ponder over questions such as
• Where have I grown up? How has that influenced me as a person
today?
• Which specific areas of my culture are so important to me that I
cannot give them up and which areas I can give up for adjustment‟s
sake?
• Think about the memories of your favourite holiday or tradition
followed in your growing-up years. What are the most striking
features of those memories.

4. Celebrating Humanity:
There is unity in diversity. All employees come from different cultural and
other backgrounds and yet all of them have human values that are
common to all. For example, we all communicate through some language,
we all have more or less similar physical capabilities and limitations, we
all like to have good food, and spent time with our families, etc. These
commonalities can be used to initiate building better relationships.

5. Building on Uniqueness
In spite of having commonalities, we have to acknowledge that all of us
are unique in our own way. We have different strengths and weaknesses,
personalities, etc. that come with us to our workplace as part and parcel of
us. To have a strong team, it is necessary to identify these unique qualities
of each and every member and harness them for building up the strength
of the team. Along the lines of the Gestalt principle, it can be said that the
whole or total sum is different and bigger than the individual parts. It is
not always beneficial to treat everyone equally in the team, and everyone
on the team should bear equal responsibility and workload. But different
people have different strengths. The tasks should be allotted to them
depending on their strengths. The manager should ensure that everyone
feels that his unique talent and skills are appreciated and utilized for the
benefit of the team.

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Multiculturalism Theory 6. Establish a Team Mission Statement:
The team leader must collaboratively establish a team mission based on
the core values of the team. To understand the core values of the team, the
team leader and the team members should think about questions such as:
• To what extent diversity is important for our team?
• Do conflicts in our team get affected by the diversity in the team? If
yes, then how much?
• How does this diversity influence our values?
• What is the process through which our different values get merged
into a single set of values?

7. Develop a Supportive Climate:

The team leader should ensure that there is a supportive climate in his
team and that all team members respect and appreciate each other‟s
uniqueness. All team members should feel secure, and respected and
should be aware that they will not be unduly criticized, ridiculed, or
punished for making a mistake. However, at the same time, team members
should be open to constructive criticism and use it as a learning tool.

8. Continuously Evaluate the Team:

A team becomes more and more productive if its members are
continuously evaluated and feedback is given to them. This feedback can
come from the team leader as well as from team members. Giving
feedback also means communicating with each other. An effective team
ensures that there is constant communication among team members.
Constant communication leads to the continuous growth of the team and
by default of the organization too.

8.4 SUMMARY
In this unit, we have discussed various barriers to multicultural
counselling. There are three major types of barriers - Culture bound
values, class-bound values, and language barriers. Since psychotherapy
originated in America, it is influenced by American culture. The therapists
trained in traditional psychotherapy and also belonging to the White race
value individualism, assertiveness, independent decision-making, insight,
etc. These values are very different from values in collectivist cultures
such as Asian cultures. The very definition of normality is different in
both cultures. But traditional therapy gives the impression that those who
differ from majoritarian culture are sick and need to be treated. There are
cultural differences in the way people verbalize or express their emotions
and behavior. If a multicultural therapist is not aware of these differences,
the therapy will be ineffective. For example, traditional therapy
emphasizes self-disclosure while a client belonging to a minority
community will be uncomfortable doing so due to cultural values or socio-
political reasons Furthermore, research studies have shown that values
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differ on the basis of socioeconomic class too. As far as language is Multicultural Practice In
Psychology- II
concerned, of course, it is a disadvantage if a client does not know
standard English. It is also reported that even bilinguals whose parents at
home speak their native language are at disadvantage in spite of knowing
English. It is a well-known fact that in each language there are certain
concepts that cannot be exactly translated into another language and
therefore non-English speakers find it difficult to express all of their
emotional experiences.
Therapists tend to generalize the characteristics of people from minority
communities and develop certain stereotypes that influence their
judgements about the clients. They operate from their prejudice instead of
being receptive to individual differences in minority communities.
As most countries have a migratory population now, even organizations
have employees coming from diverse backgrounds. Their diversity in
cultural background can be the source of conflicts. Conflicts can be
detrimental to an organization‟s growth. The managers or team leaders
need to know how to minimize the possibility of the occurrence of these
conflicts and to develop high-performing teams. For this, they must use
active listening skills and communication skills. To manage conflict
diversity, a team leader should use the team building wheel developed by
William Sonnenschein. He must encourage team members to embrace
background differences and celebrate humanity. He should build on the
uniqueness of each and every employee, collaboratively establish a team
mission and develop a supportive climate. He should also ensure that there
is continuous feedback given to each and every team member and
continuous communication flow is there in the team.

8.5 QUESTIONS
1. Discuss in detail various barriers in multicultural counselling.
2. How cultural and class-bound values can hinder effective
multicultural counselling.
3. What are various leadership skills that can be used to reduce conflict
pitfalls arising out of diversity?
4. What are the techniques that a leader can use to manage conflict
diversity?

8.6 REFERENCES
 Elrich, H. (2003). The Social Psychology of Prejudice: A Systematic
Theoretical Review and Propositional Inventory of the American.
New York, Wiley.
 Gamst, G.C., Liang, C.T.H., Der‐ Karabetian, A. (2011). Handbook
of Multicultural Measures, La Verne: SAGE

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Multiculturalism Theory  Garrett McAulifee & Associates (2008). Culturally Alert Counselling:
A Comprehensive Introduction, Sage Publications.
 Sue, D.W., Sue, D. (2012). Counselling The Culturally Diverse:
Theory and Practice (6th Ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
 Sue, Sue D.W. (2006) Multicultural Competencies: Individual and
Organizational Development, Sage Publication, New Delhi.
 Suzuki, L.A., Meller, P.J., Ponterotto, J.G. (1996). Handbook of
Multicultural Assessment: Clinical, Psychological and Educational
Applications. San Francisco, CA: Jossey- Bass Inc.
 Swanson, J.L., Fouad, N.A. (1999). Career Theory and Practice:
Learning Through Case Studies. New Delhi: Sage Publications.

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