Further complicating the ?rst visit is the fact that such a visit and the problems that made the visit necessary might be experienced as shameful. The client may not be forthcoming but may, instead, minimize problem areas or attempt to describe them in vague, impersonal ways.
Asian families living in the United States are almost all in some phase of acculturation. The children often become bilingual, therefore assuming a power in the family that upsets traditional roles. Further, some families have members living in the home country and some members living here, which adds more relational and role strain .
Orientation toward Authority
Many Asian cultures are rigid and hierarchical in structure . This is directly related to a concept called ?lial piety, which refers to the honor, reverence, obedience, and loyalty owed to those who are hierarchically above you . The deference toward authority manifests in a number of ways. Asian American clients expect a counselor to be an expert and to act with authority.
In the same vein, verbal communication with a mental health professional may not be direct and certainly is not confrontive. It is likely that an Asian American client, when faced with uncertainty, simply offers the most polite, af?rmative response available. Among Asians, as among many American Indian tribes, silence is a sign of respect. Also similar is the pattern of eye contact. Direct eye contact is invasive and disrespectful, especially when interacting with persons of higher status or authority .
Even during a ?rst interview, many Asian American people expect concrete and tangible advice. This runs contrary to most training models for beginning interviewers; therefore, you need to practice how to give quick advice. This practice is necessary, too, Multicultural and Diversity Issues 385because the advice being offered will likely be coming from a non
Practice 12.3and Families, Greater Structure
September 29th, 2009 — Uncategorized
Putting It in Practice 12.3and families often have so much emotional energy and baggage that their con?icts erupt in powerful outbursts. We have had clients refuse to speak for the remainder of a session, try to hit or kick each other in the counseling of?ce, and abruptly leave sessions amidst a ?urry of profanity. The potential emotional explosiveness of couple and family interviews requires that interviewers maintain control throughout the session . Generally, with more disturbed couple or family systems, you must use greater structure and control to moderate the session. In extreme cases, you may act as an intermediary, paraphrasing almost everything that is said and sometimes not allowing the con?icting parties to speak directly to each other.
In summary, allowing families or couples to act out their emotionally based, destructive con?ict processes during counseling is almost always ill advised. Clients should not be allowed to yell at one another, raise accusations in an abusive manner, or repeatedly use ineffective communication skills. Instead, interviewers must structure the session and become more active, especially when working with high con?ict families and couples .
Limit Setting in the Service of Therapy
Besides the bad modeling and potential damage done by allowing too much con?ict in the couple or family work, the con?ict itself can become a distraction. It is the interviewer’s job to control and minimize distractions so that the necessary work can get done. However, minimizing distractions often involves limit setting that is uncomfortable for the beginning interviewer to enact. Putting It in Practice 12.4 helps you explore your ability to set limits when interviewing couples and families.
What Families, help Couples
September 29th, 2009 — Uncategorized
Con?ict content refers to what is argued about. In contrast, con?ict process refers to how everyone argues. This is an important distinction, and clinical interviewers must, during the ?rst session, help couples and families identify both what they are arguing about as well as how they are arguing with one another.
Most couples and families who come to therapy are engaging in destructive or inef?cient con?ict process. This is an assumption, albeit a relatively safe one. Speci?cally, we are assuming that couples and families who come to counseling have, at least to some extent, con?ict resolution skill de?cits. They are having problems with the how of con?ict. Most human beings are not completely equipped with healthy and effective con?ict management skills . Of course, there are occasions when couples and families have signi?cant con?ict in numerous content areas and have tried various adaptive strategies to resolve their differences.
Both con?ict content and con?ict process are manifest during an initial family or couple counseling interview. Both are important. Further, it is likely that the interviewer may have personal reactions to both what families and couples argue about and how they argue.
How Do You Feel about Con?ict? Not everyone enjoys open con?ict. Some people are con?ict avoiders and others are con?ict seekers . This is true about counselors as well as clients. If, as an interviewer, you ?nd yourself having strong con?ict avoidance qualities, you may not be well suited to becoming a couple or family counselor. Generally, before entering the marriage and family counseling ?eld, it is advisable to explore how you respond to interpersonal con?ict and what con?ict issues push your buttons .
Immigrant Families, Introductory Comments
September 29th, 2009 — Uncategorized
Describing con?dentiality and its limits to the child and family.
Describing any other feature of interviewing and counseling .
Take a few minutes to think about the words you’d like to use when discussing these issues with children. Now, shift your focus and imagine how you might change your introductory comments depending on the ethnic or cultural background of a particular child. How would your introductory comments change if you were working with an American Indian, African American, Asian American, or Hispanic child and family? What issues do you think would rise to the surface and require a comment from you? If you have an ethnically diverse background, imagine the differences that might arise if you were working with a White child versus someone from your own background. Discuss these issues with your class or classmates.
Besides the fact that youth itself can be considered a culture, many young people in the United States have the challenging task of living in one culture at home and another at school and in their social lives.
One in ?ve children in the United States is a child of an immigrant . The stresses and strains of ?tting in are sometimes magni?ed by having parents or caretakers who speak a different language and have customs different from people at school and in the neighborhood. Interviewers should not make assumptions about immigrant families or young people. It can be quite harmful to ignore the potential intergenerational stress created by being immigrants. It can also be harmful to assume that the immigrant family is suffering because of the bicultural demands it faces. The challenges might make family life interesting, or they may be daunting and painful. The wise interviewer ?nds ways to assess this particular dynamic. You might make observations and ask gentle, opening questions such as: “I notice your mom is wearing a traditional H’mong skirt, Tu. But you’ve got on jeans and a T shirt. Do you dress traditional sometimes?” or “I notice your parents have a kind of cool accent. Do you guys speak Russian or English at home usually?” Making a few observations that are neutral or slightly positive and following that with a question about the young person’s cultural involvement communicates that you are willing to ask about and listen to the struggles and points of pride involved in being a family spanning two or more cultures.