The Need for Counselors to Be Culturally Competent
Cultural competence is a set of interpersonal skills that help counselors understand clients’ national plurality and identity. It is developed through training in which the counselor learns to recognize the value of the cultural identity of potential clients and to recognize patterns that are unusual in their own culture. Cross-cultural competence describes a set of cultural differences between the counselor and the client that are related to different social factors.
The counselor’s need to develop cultural competence stems from the counseling context. The specialist has to demonstrate respect for the client and build a relationship of trust. Understanding someone else’s culture and accepting their psychosocial features is the key to further cooperation (Tang, 2019). Being open to other people’s social experiences arising from cultural differences is the most critical component if the specialist wants to achieve positive dynamics. Clients must understand that they will receive support even though their cultural background may be unusual for the counselor (Conner & Walker, 2017). With the appropriate competence, the professional becomes open, capable of cultural empathy, and will always be willing to accept the particularities of the new culture in their professional environment.
The Influence of Culture on Career Development
Culture is a factor in society’s transformation that ensures diversity preservation. It affects all social strata and shapes behavior in the work environment. For example, some employees are foreigners from Asian countries while the head office is in a European environment. When foreigners enter this office, they try to maintain and demonstrate established cultural habits (e.g., nodding when greeting). A person’s developmental environment directly impacts their attitudes in the work environment. For the professional environment, this can be expressed most strongly. The community’s cultural values affect how one perceives and relates to work (Tang, 2019). This influence can be positive, in which case the person will demonstrate high efficiency, friendliness, and openness, and work tasks will be completed on time. Negative influence can be a reluctance to conform to corporate habits if they interfere with the person’s cultural perception of reality.
Counseling professionals may encounter individuals in their practice whose cultural identity is not protected by the corporate characteristics of the work environment. The counselor should resort to analyzing the situation and find out details about why the client’s identity is being oppressed (Tang, 2019). Specialist can advise tactics for behavior and communication with the manager to gain respect for the culture. They may be advised to provide a visual demonstration of cultural traits about which there is prejudice. Integrating the person into the work environment will be easier, and colleagues will dispel doubts about his professional value.
Multiple Life Roles
Multiple life roles are a set of role models formed under social conditions, expressed in various behavioral habits and activities. Nowadays, the development of a technological way of life, the desire for a high quality of life, and the rapidly changing social vector lead to the fact that people have multiple behavior roles. They are part of the personality and do not lead to negative influences as a whole, but this multiplicity can interfere with the normal functioning and perception of the personality. A positive influence is expressed in multitasking and the ability to navigate quickly; a negative influence is the inability to make the line between the work environment and home, which causes relationships with other people. For me, the role of a friend for a client is a role in life: it is essential for building a dialogue. I want to mention the role of teacher and student, which allows me to gain knowledge myself and share it with my colleagues.
References
Conner, G., & Walker, W. (2017). The culturally competent counselor: Issues specific to four minority groups. Open Journal of Social Sciences, 5(3), 113-121. Web.
Tang, M. (2019). Cross-cultural perspectives in career development. In Career development and counseling: Theory and practice in a multicultural world. SAGE (59-93).