From awareness to practice: an online workshop on bringing culture into the counselling room
Date
2013-12
Authors
Rapacki, Tomasz Michal
University of Lethbridge. Faculty of Education
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Lethbridge, Alta. : University of Lethbridge, Faculty of Education
Abstract
The purpose of this project is to enhance the counselling services offered to diverse clients by supplying Canadian counsellors-in-training with a professional development resource that combines the best available outcome evidence and applied clinical wisdom with some of the most current cultural adaptation frameworks. This project is designed around Hwang‟s 2006 Psychotherapy Adaptation and Modification Framework, with the specific aim of providing an interactive and user-friendly online workshop furnished with numerous examples, relevant theories, and guidelines illustrating how abstract ethnocultural knowledge can be transformed into concrete, culturally-responsive therapeutic approaches and strategies that enhance cross-cultural counselling. To begin, a brief overview of the relevance of culturally competent counselling within the Canadian context is provided, followed by an outline of several major cultural competency theories, guidelines, and therapeutic adaptation frameworks. The main component of the workshop contains a discussion of numerous applied topics grouped under six domains, such as integrating client cultural beliefs into counselling, improving communication, and providing a cultural orientation to therapy. Each domain is broken down into several sections which are illustrated with ample applied examples and strategies. The project is concluded with a discussion of its strengths and limitations, as well as areas of future research within culturally competent counselling.
Description
Keywords
counselling , multiculturalism , professional development resource , therapeutic approaches , Counseling -- Cross-Cultural studies , Minorities -- Counseling of