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Crossing cultural boundaries in counselling

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Abstract

Mental health care providers (especially clinical psychologists,psychotherapists and counsellors) are becoming increasingly aware of theneed for cultural knowledge in order to render appropriate services.These professionals are particularly being asked to take intoconsideration clients' cultural values (in terms of their ecological,historical and cultural contexts) in service delivery. This developmenthas led to the suggestion that mental health care practitioners shouldadopt multiple delivery systems or the integration of Western andnon-Western health care delivery approaches when providing services tomulticultural groups. Along this line, this article discusses a numberof virtues inherent in some non-Western healing or psychotherapeuticapproaches. Common elements in the principles of successful therapeuticapproaches (Western and non-Western) are highlighted. The endnotes ofthe paper address the issue of cross-cultural similarities and broadpatterns in suggesting that although concepts may differ, principles andexplanations may not. Therapy and counselling in multicultural societiesof the 21st Century may be expected to take the direction of anintegrated delivery system with the possibilities of sharing ideas andknowledge across cultures.

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  1. O. Bojuwoye
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Bojuwoye, O. Crossing cultural boundaries in counselling. International Journal for the Advancement of Counselling 23, 31–50 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010658903883

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