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Perceptions of Intercultural Social Challenges: Towards Culturally Competent Counselling Practice

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 July 2015

Anita S. Mak  and
Tamara L. Shaw
Anita S. Mak*
Affiliation:
Centre for Applied Psychology, University of Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
Tamara L. Shaw
Affiliation:
Centre for Applied Psychology, University of Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
*
address for correspondence: Dr Anita S. Mak, Professor of Psychology, Faculty of Health, University of Canberra, PO Box 1, ACT 2601, Australia. Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

Increasing ethnic and cultural diversity worldwide and especially in Australia requires that psychologists and counsellors cultivate the knowhow to interact and work effectively with clients and stakeholders in cross-cultural contexts. This study aimed to identify and compare themes regarding challenging intercultural social scenarios experienced by supervising, practising and intern psychologists. Transcripts from five focus groups were open-coded on four occasions and the final themes compared with the EXCELL (Excellence in Cultural Experiential Learning and Leadership) program's six key sociocultural competencies (Mak, Westwood, Barker, & Ishiyama, 1998). We found that many challenges reported by psychologists (regardless of their qualifications) were related to difficulties — for psychologists and clients — in executing one or more of key sociocultural competencies: seeking help or information, participating in a group, making social contact, giving feedback, refusing a request, and expressing disagreement. We also identified barriers to cultural competence in therapeutic relationships, including cultural identity issues, needing to address difficulties in intimate relationships, cultural variation in values/beliefs/social norms, mismatched expectations, psychologists’ perceived deficit in intercultural training, and challenges in self-reflection. Based on our findings, we propose a model of culturally competent counselling practice and discuss implications for counsellor and psychologist training, and for future research.

Keywords

cultural competencecultural diversityintercultural trainingmental health professionalsmulticultural counselling
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Psychologists and Counsellors in Schools , Volume 25 , Issue 2 , December 2015 , pp. 183 - 199
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2015 

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