Multiculturalism: The Suppressor of Universality in all Counseling
Krystin Warden
Indiana University, Bloomington
November 12, 2013

Abstract
Multiculturalism is a widely-known issue in psychotherapy. Therapists have a hard time counseling culturally diverse clients, especially when they are unaware of their values, beliefs, and perceptions. There is debate on whether or not therapy works equally well for different populations; such as age groups, racial/ethnic groups, sexual minorities, different genders, socioeconomic class, and disabled bodies. Although some therapies might not work as well as they do with certain populations, techniques within those therapies can be taken and worked with multiple populations.
Keywords: multiculturalism, psychotherapy

Multiculturalism
Original and traditional definitions of counseling, therapy, and mental health practice arose from a White-Euro American society; a single culture with specific norms, beliefs, and values (Sue & Sue, 2013). In other words, these long-established definitions excluded other cultures of the world. Our knowledge in such topics stems all the way back to a society that took up 5% of the world’s population, therefore we are not taking into account the other 95% of the world’s beliefs and values that also play a role in therapy (Sue & Sue, 2013). What is considered to be “good therapy” in context is in actuality “good therapy” to only the society whom the context originated from, giving misrepresentation (Sue & Sue, 2013). For example, assuming disorders were similar in every culture, each disorder would receive the same treatment.
Although some mental health professionals don’t take multiculturalism into consideration, those who do believe that your environment and the culture in which you grow up being a part of heavily affects who you are and your behavior (Sue & Sue, 2013). Although one behavior or disorder might be viewed as normal in one culture, it could be viewed as abnormal in another culture – and because of this, therapy does not work equally well in different populations. Therapists must take into account every culture; otherwise they are ignorant and are under culture oppression (Sue & Sue, 2013). Unfortunately, humans come with biases and pre-conceived notions. These biases and pre-conceived notions generally affect treatment and therapy, because when working with culturally diverse populations unaware of their beliefs and values, the results of therapy are ineffective (Sue & Sue, 2013). Those who specialize in multiculturalism have even described counselors negatively in the sense of therapy by calling them insensitive to the beliefs and values of their culturally different clients; counselors do not understand these differences, and it is most times because these counselors also do not realize they are prejudiced and hold stereotypes (Sue & Sue, 2013).
There are many groups who are privileged in the American society, such as males, Caucasians, heterosexuals, and people with high socioeconomic status, yet most of these individuals do not fully understand their privileges because they have not lived life in the shoes of those who are non-privileged – think of how this would affect the alliance of a therapist who is privileged and a client who isn’t.
Those who are culturally diverse typically have a hard time in therapy, because it is often that therapists will unconsciously incorporate their personal perceptions, beliefs, and values when counseling. During therapy, a good technique is to validate the client’s feelings on their experiences, but using this technique with culturally diverse individuals can be risky because there is a higher possibility of misunderstanding how the client truly feels; for example, hypothetically speaking, I am a heterosexual therapist in session with a teenage client who tells me he has recently come to the conclusion that he is gay, then I reply, “Does that make you upset?” If the teenager was actually happy that he came to this conclusion, I would have just made him feel like he should be upset while also showing that I had a negative perception on becoming a homosexual. Because I am ignorant of his culture and views of homosexuality, I have just invalidated his feeling and have probably caused client deterioration. Counseling has also caused harm to culturally diverse groups by making their experiences and feelings seem worthless and unworthy of attention, by not giving them appropriate counseling and care, and by giving suggestions or doing things that go against their cultural values (Sue & Sue, 2013). This paper identifies different populations and describes how therapy does not work equally well with those different populations. First, I explain racial identities and how they work differently in therapy. Next, I discuss the differences between men and women that enter counseling. Subsequently, I describe various therapies that are used with different age groups and explain why it is important to use certain therapeutic methods with young children versus adults who are neurologically developed. Literature does not explain that multiculturalism is inevitable, especially in America – the capital of diversity. Limitations of this research are further explained.
Race/Ethnicity Differences with Therapy Contemporary psychotherapy and counseling is based off of Western society’s culture, while excluding the other cultures around the world. Each racial/ethnic group has its own inimitable history, which caused a set of values and beliefs to be established (Chu-Lien Chao, 2012). Values, beliefs, norms, etc. are different in every part of the world. In the Chinese culture, lack of eye contact is a norm that is preferred (Chen, 1995). The Chinese believe self-discipline and willpower is needed to effect change and hold values of a strong connection with their families – for example, if a father gives his son advice, the son will always follow his father’s advice and opinions (Chen, 1995). Therapies that would work well for this population are person-centered therapy and family systems therapy. Person-centered therapy’s view of psychotherapy is that it is up to the client to facilitate self-growth and to solve their own problems – again, a strong belief of the Chinese culture. Even if a client is in individual therapy, family systems therapy would work well with people of this culture, because it is focused on the family unit and how they operate as a whole; therefore would work well with their strong family values. Mapping out how the client’s family operates would also be beneficial to the therapist because it would help them understand the cultural values of their client. In the Chinese culture, people are judged in association of their family, rather than being judged as an individual (Chen, 1995). Unlike Western cultures, the Chinese culture would not work well with existentialism. Existentialism focuses on deblaming the victim and helping the client understand that not everything is their fault; some problems are beyond our control. When something goes wrong, people of the Chinese culture focus on personal responsibility, meaning they do not look at external causes to their problems, but internal (Chen, 1995). If a therapist were to suggest that such clients are not the cause of their own problems, the therapist would cause these clients to feel uncomfortable.
Another example of cultural diversity is in the Philippines, where their culture views strong parental control positively as care and support, while Western cultures view it as undesirable (Schumacher & Guthrie, 1984). In Philippine culture, introspection is widely known as being useless and not something that is reflected upon (Schumacher & Guthrie, 1984), whereas Western cultures, like America, use introspection in psychotherapy. In America, introspection is especially used in cognitive behavioral therapy where the goal of the therapist is to make clients aware of their unconscious, automatic thoughts and core beliefs.
Gender Differences with Therapy
When it comes to men and women in counseling, they are emotionally different (Englar-Carlson, 2010). In regards to depression and the use of cognitive behavioral therapy, women had poorer outcomes when compared to men (Fasiczka, AL., Frank, E., Garamoni, GG., Jennings, JR., Kupfer, DJ., McGeary, J., Reynolds, CF., Simons, AD., & Thase, ME., 1994). Men are also less likely to seek professional mental care, hold restrictive views and negative attitudes towards counseling, and have less confidence in therapists because it goes against the social norm of masculinity; self-disclosure, showing that they’re vulnerable or dependent and admitting feelings. (Rabinowitz & Cochran, 2002 cited from Englar-Carlson, 2010). In result to these concerns, therapists can go about therapy in different ways that tailor to male needs, such as identifying the client’s expectations and changing the client’s view of psychotherapy so that it comes off as normal to be in attendance (Englar-Carlson, 2010).

Age Differences with Therapy
Therapy used with children is much different than therapy that is used with adults due to reasons that are developmental. Counselors must take into account the different levels of development between children, adolescents, and adults in order to correctly work with their needs and deliver proper care to those needs. Counselors receive training to work with young children so that it is applicable to their developmental needs (Wolfgang, J., Frazier, K., West-Olatunji, C., & Barrett, J., 2011). For instance, if a child has been found to have a mental health problem, counselors would work with the child’s parents rather than the child directly (Sweet & Applebaum, 2004 cited from Wolfgang, J., Frazier, K., West-Olatunji, C., & Barrett, J., 2011).
When working with children, counselors use play theories that are derived off of adult practices through the use of toys and images (Landreth, 2002 cited from Wolfgang, J., Frazier, K., West-Olatunji, C., & Barrett, J., 2011). Because children express their emotions differently than adults do, counselors give these toys and images to young clients to help them illustrate what’s going on in their lives and how they are feeling about it. Not all therapies are appropriate for all ages; psychoanalysis wouldn’t work with children because it involves getting them to bring forth their automatic thoughts and core beliefs – something younger people aren’t developmentally capable of doing yet. An applicable therapy for children is behavioral therapy, because it involves altering their behaviors, which can be done through operant conditioning; bribing or giving rewards to children when they act on positive behaviors.
Limitations and Future Research
Specific therapies might not work the same for every population, like children and adults, yet therapeutic techniques can be taken and molded to fit the standards and characteristics of different populations. Even so, just because people of one culture are in some ways similar to one another, each individual is unique and holds differences of their own – this is an aspect of counseling that therapists must be aware of. For future research, the prominent direction is asking which therapies work best for culturally diverse populations, rather than if therapy works for different populations.
In conclusion, multicultural counseling involves taking a client’s culture, and the values and beliefs of that culture, into consideration, but does not consider a client’s personal values and beliefs that could differ from their culture’s norms. Different therapies should be used with these different cultures because of those norms, beliefs, and values. Decreasing their biases and understanding other culture’s diversities is a hard task for counselors, which push away culturally diverse populations from going to therapy. Although multiculturalism is inevitable, especially in America where there are so many different cultures, counselors continue their efforts in understanding other cultures and working with them.

References
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