Perceptions of Intercultural Social Challenges: Towards Culturally Competent Counselling Practice

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.

Stigma, stereotypes and support: the 3S in navigating complex journeys from Intensive English Centres to higher education for students from refugee backgrounds in Australia

“…Like previous studies (Hammond 2014;Rose 2018) The challenges in assessing learning difficulties in culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) students faced by high school psychologists and guidance counsellors are noted in the literature, although they are not refugee specific (Crevecoeur and Obiakor 2013;Vega et al 2016). A lack of appropriate training in this area, along with a lack of validated tools and guidelines can lead to subjective interpretations of assessment results and inaccurate diagnoses (Mak and Shaw 2015;Velasco Leon and Campbell 2020). This in turn leads to isolation, frustration, an increase in student attrition and poor employment prospects for students (Crevecoeur and Obiakor 2013).…”

Urgensi Kompetensi Multikultural Dari Konselor Sebagai Sarana Membangun Integritas Bangsa

“…Jika konselor tidak memiliki kemampuan untuk menentukan teknik yang tepat sesuai dengan latar belakang konseli maka akan menimbulkan beberapa hambatan. Seperti pada penelitian yang dilakukan oleh Mak, A. S & Shaw, T. L (2015) yang mengungkapkan bahwa terdapat beberapa hambatan jika seorang konselor tidak memiliki kompetensi budaya seperti interaksi sosial antar budaya akan semakin menantang dan hubungan terapeutik antar budaya.…”

Cracking the cultural code

“…The current study highlights interaction adjustment in particular, which includes psychological comfort relating to communication styles in the host culture, and interpersonal communication with host country nationals (Takeuchi, 2010). Importantly, Bhaskar-Shrinivas and colleagues’ (2005) meta-analyses found that self-efficacy, relational skills, and belief in one’s ability to communicate appropriately (Mak and Shaw, 2015) in a new culture and relational skills were positively related to interaction adjustment.…”

“…EXCELL has been used with immigrant jobseekers, for students to investigate whether providing them with a skills-based sociocultural competency yielded additional benefits (Knott et al, 2013; Mak and Buckingham, 2007; Mak and Shaw, 2015) and as part of culturally inclusive curricula in disciplines as diverse as pharmacy, business, and psychology (Barker and Mak, 2013). The current research uses EXCELL’s culture learning resource as a framework to understand how Indian IT workers perceived and experienced specific competencies (such as expressing disagreement or seeking help) when they were on an international assignment in Australia.…”

“…These competencies (e.g. participating in a group or giving feedback) are considered necessary for success in social integration in work, educational, and community settings (Mak and Shaw, 2015; Westwood et al, 2000). The culture-learning and cultural validation perspective of the current study responds to the central call by Stahl and Tung’s (2015) for a more positive perspective of ‘culture as an asset’ in international business (IB) contexts.…”