Clients' Perspectives on Cultural Competence in Counselling
Date
2018-04-27
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Abstract
In a nation like Canada, attention to the diversity of clientele is essential for counsellors to practice ethically. Multicultural considerations have become a fourth force in counselling practice, with a multitude of models and frameworks suggesting how to enact cultural competence in counselling. Research on cultural competence has typically focused on the counsellor perspective. A limited number of studies have solicited client perspectives on their counsellor’s competence, and no current studies examining client self-reflections of their contributions to the counselling experience. My research contributed to the literature by taking a social constructivist, qualitative approach to investigating what clients find beneficial and not beneficial in navigating culture in the counselling context. The research included exploration of both their counsellors’ beliefs, attitudes, sayings, actions and other ways of being, and an introduction to clients’ self-reflection on their contributions to the counselling experience. Through the Enhanced Critical Incident Technique (ECIT), 10 university students identified incidents that helped, hindered, or were desired in order to navigate culture in the counselling context. Data analysis resulted in 12 categories that encapsulated the 162 incidents about counsellor factors: (a) creating safety, (b) empathy, (c) genuineness, (d) communication skills, (e) engagement, (f) counsellor-client bond, (g) cultural identities, (h) flexibility, (i) impacts of categorization, (j) general counselling competence, (k) professionalism, (l) contributions to client outcomes. The 9 incidents related to client contributions fit within one category: style of engagement. I synthesized the findings with existing literature to offer recommendations for counselling practice and education.
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Keywords
counselling, Psychology, Culture, cultural competence, client perspective, ECIT
Citation
Rebus, M. (2018) Clients' perspectives on cultural competence in counselling (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/31893