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Diversity, Culture
and Counselling
A Canadian Perspective
THIRD EDITION
Edited by
M. Honoré France
María del Carmen Rodríguez
Geoffrey G. Hett
Copyright © 2021 M. Honoré France, María del Carmen Rodríguez and Geoffrey G. Hett
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All figures belong to M. Honoré France unless noted below.
Figure 9.1: Reprinted with permission from Are Refugees Good for Canada: A Look at Canadian
Refugee Integration by UNHCR, n.d., p. 4 (https://www.unhcr.ca/wp-­content/uploads/2020/03/
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Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Title: Diversity, culture and counselling : a Canadian perspective / edited by M. Honoré France,
María del Carmen Rodríguez, Geoffrey G. Hett.
Names: France, Honoré, editor. | Rodríguez, María del Carmen (Professor of indigenous
education), editor. | Hett, Geoffrey, editor.
Description: Third edition. | Includes bibliographical references.
Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20210245425 | Canadiana (ebook) 20210245468 | ISBN
9781550598759 (softcover) | ISBN 9781550598766 (PDF) | ISBN 9781550598780 (EPUB)
Subjects: LCSH: Cross-­cultural counseling—­Canada. | LCSH: Minorities—­Counseling of—­
Canada.
Classification: LCC BF636.7.C76 D59 2021 | DDC 158.3—­dc23
For Ruth and George Cook, Kwakwaka’wakw
Elders from Alert Bay, BC, with and from whom
I have had the privilege to work and learn.
—­M. Honoré France
A mis padres, Humberto y María del Carmen:
Por respetar y honrar mis sueños de niña.
Por estar a mi lado en la cercanía y en la
distancia.
Por dejarme alzar el vuelo y confiar en las
Raíces que me heredaron.
—­María del Carmen Rodríguez
To my amazing family: my loving wife Lorraine, our
children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.
—­Geoff G. Hett
Contents
PREFACE.. ......................................................................................................... VII
PART I ISSUES IN DIVERSIT Y, CULTURE AND COUNSELLING................... 1
1. Counselling Across Cultures: Identity, Race and Communication......... 5
M. HON ORÉ FRAN CE
2. Exploring Worldview......................................................................... 35
MARÍA DEL C ARMEN RODRÍGUEZ
3. Developing Cross-­Cultural Counselling Skills................................... 57
M. HON ORÉ FRAN CE
PART II CULTURAL COMMUNITIES AND COUNSELLING PROCEDURES. 85
4. Counselling in Indigenous Communities........................................... 89
M. HON ORÉ FRAN CE, MARÍA DEL C ARMEN
RODRÍGUEZ AND ROD MCCORMICK
5. Counselling in Asian Communities.................................................. 129
M. HON ORÉ FRAN CE AND DAVID SUE
6. Where Are You Really From?: Counselling in the Chinese
Canadian Community...................................................................... 147
ANDREA SUM
7. Counselling in South Asian Communities: Challenges and
Promises From a Sikh Canadian Perspective.................................... 159
RUBY RANA AND SUKKIE SIHOTA
8. Counselling Migrants: Acculturation, Adaptation and the
Multiphase Model........................................................................... 185
M. HON ORÉ FRAN CE AND YALI LI
9. Refugee Trauma Pre-­and Postmigration: Considerations for
Counsellors..................................................................................... 209
LISA KURY TNIK
10. The “Hardest Burden”?: Helping and Working With People
With Disabilities............................................................................. 229
ABEBE ABA Y TEKLU
v
v i Contents
11. Counselling in Hispanic Communities............................................. 243
JORGE GARCIA, MARÍA DEL C ARMEN
RODRÍGUEZ AND M. HON ORÉ FRAN CE
12. Counselling Black Canadians........................................................... 263
ELIAS CHEBOUD AND M. HON ORÉ FRAN CE
13. Islamic Identity: Counselling Muslim Canadians............................. 289
M. HON ORÉ FRAN CE AND ABDULL AHI BARISE
14. My Multiracial Identity: Examining the Biracial/Multiracial
Dynamic.......................................................................................... 311
NATASHA C AVERLE Y
15. Upon Arrival: Ordeals and Challenges in Working With
International Students..................................................................... 331
MARÍA DEL C ARMEN RODRÍGUEZ AND M. HON ORÉ FRAN CE
16. The Counselling Profession and the LGBTQ2+ Community........... 353
TRACE Y COULTER AND M. HON ORÉ FRAN CE
17. Counselling Euro-­Canadians: A Multicultural Perspective............... 377
M. HON ORÉ FRAN CE AND STEVE BEN THEIM
18. Counselling in National Crises: Vulnerable Populations and
Lessons From the COVID-­19 Pandemic......................................... 405
GEOFFRE Y G. HET T
PART III APPLICATION AND PRAC TICAL APPROACHES.......................... 429
19. The Red Road: Spirituality, the Medicine Wheel and the
Sacred Hoop.................................................................................... 431
M. HON ORÉ FRAN CE
20. Yoga Therapy: Ancient Wisdom for Today’s Body, Mind and Spirit. 463
SARAH KINSLE Y
21. Transpersonal Counselling: A Cross-­Cultural Approach.................. 493
M. HON ORÉ FRAN CE AND GARY NIXON
22. Intellect, Feelings and Sufism: A Multidimensional Approach
to Healing....................................................................................... 521
AVA RAZAVI, MORTEZA RAZAVI AND M. HON ORÉ FRAN CE
23. Buddhist Psychotherapy: Naikan Therapy, Mindfulness
Meditation and Tonglen.................................................................. 539
M. HON ORÉ FRAN CE
24. Reconnecting With Nature: Using Nature in Counselling................ 561
M. HON ORÉ FRAN CE
25. Diversity, Culture and Counselling in a Time of Change and
Transition........................................................................................ 587
M. HON ORÉ FRAN CE
About the Editors....................................................................................611
Preface
Diversity, Culture and Counselling: A Canadian Perspective, 3rd Edition is
designed for those who teach courses in the fields of counselling, social
work or other helping professions, or for professional counsellors who
are interested in working with the diverse people of Canada. It is important to the field of counselling psychology in Canada, where many college and university textbooks still come out of the United States.
When I first designed a course on counselling in the multicultural
Canada of the 1990s, I had very few resources and no textbooks to work
with. I wanted to use materials that reflected the voices of the diverse
people with whom I was working as a counsellor. Developing these
materials was vital for teaching a course that was relevant to Canada.
Out of this initial work and collaboration with colleagues and students
on the subject, this book was born.
My experience as a professional counsellor has always been a part
of my teaching, particularly in working with people in my community.
My professional work has impressed upon me the huge role that culture plays in the healing processes. As intercultural helpers, awareness,
knowledge and sound counselling skills are necessary when approaching
someone who seeks support. By awareness, I mean two things: awareness
of the worldview of our clients and how it shapes and is shaped by their
feelings, thoughts, perceptions and experiences; and awareness of how
our own worldview affects what we as counsellors bring to counselling
sessions. We need to know our privileges and biases and deal with our
own internalized oppression. We need to have knowledge about other
cultures’ experiences and perspectives. We need to be aware, too, of how
experiences affect us internally and externally. We believe in decolonizing the counselling process by incorporating approaches such as liberation therapy that can move people in our society to deconstruct internal
and external forces such as racism, sexism, homophobia, Islamophobia
and anti-­Blackness that hinder our and our clients’ dreams, plans and
abilities to achieve the fullest expressions of the self. Finally, from our
awareness around all of these things, we need to develop multicultural
counselling skills that can help clients and their communities deal with
v ii
v iii P reface
the issues that they face. With this in mind, it has been important for me
as an academic to promote diverse voices in educational contexts so that
students, once they become professional counsellors, can better frame
the work that they do with diverse populations.
Awareness is also important to the way this book has come together—­
specifically, the editors’ and contributors’ awareness of our own worldviews and how they influence the material in this collection. We have
drawn from our own experience and our own perspectives as counsellors,
social workers and academics in Canada with our own diverse cultural
backgrounds. We speak from what we know, acknowledging the limits
of our perspectives but also honouring them as the places from which we
can both share and learn.
One of the reasons for redeveloping this book is, like the intentions
behind its initial development, to bring more Canadian content to the
area of cultural diversity in counselling. More than this, however, there
has been a great deal of change in Canadian society since the second
edition came out in 2013. Much of this change relates specifically to
issues of race, cultural norms, gender and sexuality, and other areas of
diversity that are highly relevant to the counselling profession in general,
and specifically to any counsellor working with culturally diverse clients.
In 2013, around the time of the second edition’s publication, the Idle
No More movement was ongoing and picking up steam. Also in 2013,
the first wave of the Black Lives Matter movement began in response
to the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and to systemic
police violence against Black people in the United States and globally.
The #MeToo movement, which sparked global conversations around the
world about sexual harassment and gender inequality, began in 2017. In
2018, Canadians began paying attention to the Indigenous land rights
claims of the Wet’suwet’en. This evolved, in February 2020, to nation-­
wide protests in support of the Wet’suwet’en that blocked rail transport across the country. Shortly afterward, the world was hit with the
COVID-­19 pandemic (ongoing at the time of writing), which has disproportionately affected communities of colour, sparking a widespread
reckoning with the deep-­seated social, political and economic inequalities that underlie societies around the world, including in Canada. In the
midst of this, George Floyd was killed by police in Minneapolis, Minnesota, relaunching Black Lives Matter protests in the United States,
which have expanded into movements that address systemic violence
against not just Black, but also Indigenous, trans and other minority
identity people in Canada and around the world.
P reface i x
Though this brief account is far from exhaustive, it is meant to illustrate an important point about Canada today: We exist in a time of
transition. The third edition of Diversity, Culture and Counselling is a
necessary step forward from the second, but like the time in which it is
written, it is a transitional text. Some contributors were no longer available to update their pieces; however, their contributions remain valuable.
Still, this edition includes changes that need to be made now, along with
content that will evolve in future editions.
The changes in this edition address important issues such as systemic
racism, immigration policy, discriminatory policies in society and climate
change, just to name a few. All the chapters have been revised and new
ones have been added to reflect the current state of diversity in Canadian
counselling. Similarly, chapters that have become less relevant were left
out. You will hear the voices of professional counsellors and contributors
from myriad different backgrounds: from African Canadians, to South
and East Asian Canadians, to counsellors of different abilities, to Indigenous counsellors (myself included). You will also hear from contributors
who are Buddhist, Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Sikh. The contributors
talk about counselling in their communities, the specific challenges they
face, and their implications for counsellors.
The book is organized in three parts. Part I outlines the central concepts that underlie the book as a whole. Chapter 1 deals with issues of
identity, race and cross-­cultural communication. Chapter 2 introduces
students to the concept of worldview through an intercultural lens.
Chapter 3 explores the fundamentals of multicultural and culturally
sensitive counselling skills, including perspectives from both advocates
and critics. This chapter also stresses the importance of intersectionality within intercultural counselling as a framework for understanding
the ways in which we—­our clients and ourselves—­all embody different,
interconnected identities related to, among other things, our appearance,
(dis)ability, class, gender, race/ethnicity, religion, sexuality and cultural
identity.
In Part II, each chapter deals with a specific population or cultural community and presents considerations for developing strong
counsellor-­client relationships. Some chapters give broad overviews of
particular communities (e.g., Chapter 5, “Counselling Issues Within
Asian Canadian Communities,” by Sue and France), while others look
at more personal experiences from within a community (e.g., Caverley’s Chapter 14 on her experience as a multiracial Canadian). With the
exception of Chapter 18, which addresses advocacy and direct-­action
x P reface
strategies for connecting and working with vulnerable populations, the
chapters in Part II have been written by or in collaboration with a person or persons from the community they are about and provide insight
into the implications of these different perspectives on the counselling
profession.
Finally, Part III addresses counselling methodologies related to multicultural identity and from outside of the conventional, European tradition of counselling practice. The chapters in the final part of the book
have been written by or in collaboration with practitioners who have
specific expertise in the methods described. They include chapters on
traditional helping and healing methods from Indigenous communities,
the use of nature to assist in the helping relationship, the use of yoga
in therapy, transpersonal counselling and the use of Sufism in therapy.
A new chapter in this edition looks at preparing for future crises and
exploring ideas and attitudes that counsellors can use to support themselves and others through times of cultural change. For me, the scope of
Part III is one of the best features of this book because it expands the
Western idea of what counselling is, emphasizing that all cultures have a
psychology and healing methods that are both valid and valuable additions to our therapeutic repertoires, particularly in intercultural contexts.
I believe in the importance of culture to the health of the individual
and the positive impact that diverse cultural perspectives can have on the
health of a multicultural society. I also believe that multicultural counselling approaches offer effective starting points to working with people
from different ethnic/racial backgrounds, sexualities, gender identities, abilities and religious backgrounds, thus moving the profession to
another dimension of effectiveness. Racism and prejudice against group
identities that are different from one’s own are major areas of concern
in every society; counselling is not immune to these problems and must
address them. Understanding the causes and costs of stereotypes and
biases is vital if counsellors are to bridge the divide between “us” and
“them.” This is an important factor that can help or hinder effective
counselling across cultures; consequently, knowing how to enhance communication becomes necessary. One facet of this work involves understanding and being secure in one’s own identity, culturally and racially,
in order to leave space for others to feel secure in theirs. Cross-­culturally
effective counsellors must also remember that, as helpers, they are working not just with individuals but with groups of people with collective
orientations and differences.
P reface x i
I close this preface with a deep thank-­you to every contributor to
this book for their work and commitment. We are also grateful to Brush
Education for taking this book on and continuing to promote Canadian
content, to Lauri Seidlitz for accepting our idea and promoting the third
edition of this book, and to Kay Rollans for her assistance in ensuring
that all the references were correct and that our language was clear. We
recognize that there is more to say on all of the topics presented in this
book, but at a certain point we had to let go of our desires for perfection. We offer this book with the attitude of the student, always open to
learning more.
Now, in the words of Indigenous leader Sitting Bull: “Let us put our
minds together and see what life we can make for our children.”
M. Honoré France
March 26, 2021
PART I
Issues in Diversity, Culture and Counselling
Canada sees itself as a multicultural society. The term multiculturalism was
introduced to the Canadian public in 1971 by Prime Minister Pierre Elliott
Trudeau, but did not become government policy until the mid-­
1980s.
Trudeau’s multicultural policy was at first primarily intended to address
growing tensions between Anglophone and Francophone Canadians (the
latter primarily in Quebec), and specifically to create protections for the Quebecois as a minority culture in Canada. This resulted in a number of policy
strategies geared toward uniting these two communities. However, the policy also marked gains in protections for other minority populations and the
beginning of changes to racist immigration policy that unfairly excluded certain groups from entry into Canada. However, the term multicultural and the
political discourses around it have not, for Indigenous people, accomplished
what they have promised. More work needs to be done.
In the counselling literature, the word multicultural has been adopted in
dialogues around “culturally sensitive counselling.” In this discourse, the focus
is on how diversity, culture and counselling merge. Thus, in using the word
multicultural, we include all people. That is, we include visible minorities as
well as mainstream cultural groups too—­in Canada, that means the cultures
that have developed out of the early English and French immigrant settlers
whose languages still dominate here. In this way, the idea of multiculturalism is used to address issues of culture, oppression, privilege and a host of
other factors that influence the counselling process, and to acknowledge
that these issues touch all people in our society in different ways. Culturally
sensitive counselling focusses on addressing the challenges we all face in
striving to live together in ways that celebrate our differences.
The focus of the chapters in Part I of this book is on understanding and
celebrating difference in our society today, and on productively addressing
our reactions to it. We will also explore the concept of worldview and be
introduced to the basic skills of culturally sensitive counselling. As counsellors, we believe in the need to embrace and encourage cultural diversity in
1
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I ssues in D i v ersity, C ulture and Counselling
our profession as being enriching and valuable. Distrust towards those who
are different seems to be a common reaction in people around the world.
Perhaps it is, to a certain extent, part of the human condition. In many ways,
however, fear of difference stems from fear of the unknown—­and while we
can’t eliminate difference, we can learn more about one another and disarm
this fear. The truth is that, regardless of one’s language, race or culture, communities do not exist in vacuums. We are all interdependent. We, the editors
of this volume, profoundly believe that when a community discriminates
against and marginalizes people for being different, instability occurs and
everyone suffers.
The changing trends in immigration to Canada are having a major impact
on how counselling services are offered. The multicultural reality in Canada is
changing and necessitates a shift from the dominant Eurocentric counselling
theories and practices, which favour the White, middle-­class population, to
approaches that emphasize diversity and a global perspective. As counsellors, we need to recognize the importance of language and communication
in counselling diverse groups of people. We believe that multicultural experiences can enhance a counsellor’s personal growth and overall communication skills. When we work with diverse groups, our behaviour and language
greatly influence the communication process and counselling outcome.
Further, we live in a time that warns us that our very survival may depend
on our ability to communicate effectively on a multicultural level. Counsellors are in a unique position to model culturally sensitive behaviour and language within their counselling practice and support their clients in a world
that is not always set up to accommodate them. They can, in this way, help
challenge issues of discrimination and racism and advocate for a more just
society. Frequent contact with different cultures is particularly important in
achieving this goal.
The cornerstone of counselling with diverse clients is an understanding of worldview and how it relates to developing multicultural counselling
skills. No matter where we live on the globe, we modify our perception of
the world by understanding, experiencing and making meaning of an array
of customs unique in their own right and dissimilar to our own. Worldview
is sometimes entrenched in folklores, traditions and rituals, but also involves
normative standards of subsistence, communication, technology and political ideas. Exposure to these different customs and worldviews is indispensable to interacting with others in a culturally diverse setting. However, the
process of modifying our own worldview goes beyond just gaining knowledge of cultural customs as facts. Rather, learning about these customs also
allows us to pursue an understanding of the values, beliefs, attitudes and
affective perceptions that constitute the life of a people with different cultural touchstones than our own.
As Canada has evolved, immigration has reshaped the population of the
country, making it one of the most diverse in the world. The impact of this
I ssues in D i v ersity, C ulture and Counselling 3
shift in immigration is significant for counsellors. The multicultural reality
of Canadian society will challenge counsellors in a time when universities
are slow in providing multicultural training for the helping professions. As
most Canadian counselling theories and practices originate from European
models, counsellors are at a disadvantage when providing services to people
who hold a different worldview from their own. We encourage counsellors to
seek out the experiences, training and competencies necessary to support
people who hold different worldviews and cultural values. Gaining multicultural counselling skills is necessary and doing so is the only ethical way to
proceed if we are to move beyond a Eurocentric position and empower all
clients, regardless of their culture, race, abilities, sexual orientation or religious beliefs.
1
Counselling Across Cultures
Identity, Race and Communication
M. HONORÉ FRANCE
In the 1960s, Toronto was not a diverse city, with only 3% of its population coming from other countries (Dyer, 2001). Today, Toronto is one
of the most culturally diverse cities in the world, with 51% of residents
being born somewhere other than Canada (Ryan, 2020)—­and it’s not the
only place in Canada with impressive diversity numbers. In Burnaby (a
community in the Metro Vancouver area), there is a “73 per cent chance
two randomly chosen people from Burnaby will be of a different ethnicity” (Todd, 2020, para. 10). In Richmond, another Vancouver suburb, and
in the city of Vancouver itself, this drops to a still impressive 68%.
According to the Statistics Canada (2017a), about 1.2 million immigrants arrived in Canada between 2011 and 2016, or about 240,000 people per year. The impact of this is especially visible in urban centres—­in
particular, Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal, where about 70% of immigrants to Canada settle. More than half of all immigrants to Canada are
from Asia, particularly from China and India, with fewer immigrants
from Europe. The number of international students coming to Canada
is almost 400,000 per year (although in 2020 during the COVID-­19
pandemic, that number decreased drastically). Most of Canada’s international student come from China, India, South Korea, France and the
United States.
The Indigenous population in Canada is approximately 1,700,000,
or about 4.9% of the total population (Statistics Canada, 2019). This
population is growing. The annual rate of increase in Canada’s population is 4.2% per year overall; the Indigenous population increased at a
rate of 19.5% between 2011 and 2016 (Statistics Canada, 2019). The
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I s s u e s i n D i v e r s i t y, C u lt u r e a n d C o u n s e l l i n g
Census Bureau has also estimated that by 2030 the majority of British
Columbia’s population will not be White.
What do these levels of diversity mean for Canadian society?
Baird et al.’s (2019) comparative study of the effect of collaborative
governance on social-­ecological decision-­making found that diversity
contributes to flexibility in problem-­solving and ultimately leads to
more novel problem-­solving strategies. This, the researchers conclude, is
due to the sheer variety of different perspectives at play. In other words,
diversity increases creativity and innovation.
One of the most dramatic diversity strategies has occurred in the
higher educational system in Canada. In the last twenty years, universities across Canada have increased the diversity of their faculties and
student bodies and have increased the percentage of international students coming to Canada. According to Blummer (2018), diversity has
benefited everyone by allowing students to:
• Have more exposure to a wide variety of social, political, cultural
and economic perspectives
• Experience different perspectives and viewpoints that expand and
enrich their knowledge and education
• Increase their critical thinking and leadership skills
• Enhance their abilities to work with others
To put it plainly, the population of Canada is becoming ever more diverse,
and we, that very same diversifying population, stand to benefit—­that is,
if we commit to seeking out, centring and honouring the diversity of
the people in our lives. Yes, former prime minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau
declared Canada an officially multicultural country in 1971, making
Canada the first country in the world to make such a declaration. But
this declaration was not a magical incantation, suddenly making of
Canada a land of peaceful and equitable cohabitation of many cultures.
Neither, for that matter, was the recognition of multiculturalism in section 27 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms eleven years later, nor the
Multiculturalism Act three years after that.
For us all to reap the benefits of diversity, we must first learn to
respect diversity. Such respect demands compassion, openness and
work. For counsellors, it is no different. Many helping professionals
still make unfounded assumptions, implicitly or explicitly, about people
from a different ethnic or cultural group than themselves. One of the
ways in which this assumption crops up in counselling is the belief that
one theoretical orientation is universally applicable in any intervention
effort with any person from any cultural background. Professionals with
C o u n s e l l i n g Ac r o s s C u lt u r e s 7
this perspective may approach clients not as distinct human beings with
individual experiences, but rather as cultural stereotypes with pathological differences.
It is vital for the practitioner to be in sync with the client and to facilitate movement toward the client’s goals (Sue et al., 2019). The practitioner’s goal should be to help clients to develop functional environmental
mastery behaviours that lead to personal adjustment and optimal mental health with the operational therapeutic objective of helping clients
empower themselves toward environmental mastery and competence.
D i ve r s it y : Challenges for Co u n sello rs
In December 2020, a group of Black federal civil servants began a class-­
action lawsuit against the Canadian government. The employees allege
that the government—­despite its official claims of multiculturalism—­
has been discriminating against Black employees, excluding them from
high-­level promotions for decades. The suit may cover employees from
the last 50 years. Nicholas Marcus Thompson, one of the claimants, says,
“Our exclusion at the top levels of the public service, in my view, has
really disenfranchised Canada from that talent and that ability and the
culture that Black workers bring to the table” (cited in Ho & Arsenault,
2020).
Though not a surprise to many—­especially to those who have experienced first-­hand exclusion and discrimination in Canada based on race,
ethnicity or culture—­it’s a big let down from the heady days of Justin
Trudeau’s promise to create a government committed to feminism, reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples and a more egalitarian society overall. Much has changed around the world in the decade between 2010
and 2020—­indeed, even in the last few years of this decade. We’ve seen
multiple refugee crises, including the Syrian refugee crisis, which has
been called the largest displacement of refugees of this century. Donald
Trump was elected president; his regime enacted “America first” policies
that disrupted global trade, increased international and domestic tensions, and put at risk the lives of migrants trying to find safety. Britain
voted to leave the European Union. In the last moments of this decade,
the COVID-­19 pandemic swept the globe, killing thousands daily, disrupting the lives and health of millions, and causing the largest economic recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s. In 2020, the
leading cause of death in the United States was COVID-­19, affecting
primarily Black and Indigenous people (APM Research Lab, 2020). The
pandemic is ongoing at the time of writing.
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I s s u e s i n D i v e r s i t y, C u lt u r e a n d C o u n s e l l i n g
The year 2020 also saw the resurgence, especially in North American
and Europe, of a movement to address systemic anti-­Black racism and
end police brutality worldwide: the Black Lives Matter movement. It
saw the fastest ever development of a vaccine, at once igniting hopes
about the end of the pandemic and causing flare-­ups of COVID-­related
conspiracy theories (Pierre, 2020; Romer & Jamieson, 2020). In Canada,
these new tensions and alliances emerge from the reality of a multicultural, multiethnic and multilingual society.
For counsellors, the rapid changes we are experiencing in this society
need to be addressed in a realistic yet positive manner in which differences are celebrated rather than homogenized. Diversity, when honoured, is beautiful and strengthening.
Being accepting and open to differences is often elusive. But why is
this so? According to Anastasio and Rose (2014), the human tendency
of intergroup bias or “the difference between how much one values one’s
own group compared to how much one values other groups, can take the
form of in-­group favoritism or out-­group derogation” (p. 593). One tendency of societies in general seems to be to exclude others who are different; it is not uncommon for people from majority cultural and racial
groups to see someone different as being a stranger in their midst.
Indeed, in Canada, people of colour—­including First Nations people,
the original inhabitants of this land, as well as the Inuit and Métis—­are
called “visible minorities.”1 This is a distinctively Canadian term that is
often used as a shorthand to describe racial minorities who are not of
European origin and who have physical characteristics that distinguish
them from that origin, which is considered the mainstream in Canada
(Labelle, 2007).
Yu (2015) relates the story of Canadian poet Fred Wah, a man of
Asian and Euro-­Canadian heritage. Wah’s family lived in Saskatchewan
for several generations, feeling like foreign visitors. Despite multiculturalism policies, this country is seen, and tends to see itself, as a country
of European—­specifically, White European—­immigrants. As Yu writes,
Wah punctures multiculturalism with a blunt acknowledgement of
racial hierarchy: “white is still the standard.” “Ethnic community”
here is as much an exclusive as an inclusive force, and the relationship among ethnic and racial groups is a “game” all are compelled
to play. (p. 35)
1 Officially, Statistics Canada (2017b) does not include Indigenous people in the category of “visible minority.”
In unofficial, everyday terms, however, we believe that this categorization makes sense.
C o u n s e l l i n g Ac r o s s C u lt u r e s 9
The changing nature of society makes an argument for or against multiculturalism moot; but if society is to avoid cultural and racial misunderstanding, then the institutions of society need to adapt to the new
realities. For counsellors, this adaptation may mean adopting frames of
reference about what counselling is, and understanding that, for people
from some racial or ethnic backgrounds, trust of the counsellor may not
be inherent, nor can it be established in the traditional manner that theoreticians like Carl Rogers suggested.
So, how does one establish a trusting relationship? One way may be
to adopt the idea of counselling as a “working alliance” in which counsellors and clients work in a collaborative way to accomplish clients’ goals
or to “find solutions.” In other words, the counsellor creates common
ground by focussing with the client on a solution to the issue or issues
that brought them to therapy. This involves establishing an avenue to
resolution (or a common goal) rather than first building on the idea of a
trusting relationship. According to Proudlock (2017), one of the important elements in this sort of solution-­focussed therapy is that trust is
established through the process of finding a solution together.
We must also consider that all counselling is potentially multicultural
in one way or another, because it always deals with a range of variables
that may be contradictory from situation to situation. Sciarra (1999)
provides the following example: “the personalismo of the Latino culture
can require a less formal and more affective counsellor, whereas these
same counsellor characteristics may be alienating to some Asian clients”
(p. 10). Adapting the process to suit the situation is fundamental, therefore, because there will always be some cultural differences between clients and counsellors.
However, moving away from one’s routines and traditions and into the
routines and traditions of another culture has a price. Dangers are always
present, and change is a constant. Ethiopian Canadian Nega Mezlekia’s
(2000) novel Notes from the Hyena’s Belly begins with a metaphor that
illustrates this point: a lion, leopard, hyena and donkey come together
to discuss why their land is in such a poor state. They explain that the
turmoil must be due to a sin that has displeased God. One by one, each
animal tells a story of attacking another animal and eating it—­except, of
course, the donkey. However, each animal that tells such a story is told
by the others that eating other animals is the nature of being an animal,
so it is not wrong. When it is the donkey’s turn, he relates that while his
human master was busy talking with another man, the donkey went off
the trail and ate some grass. The other animals become enraged at this
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I s s u e s i n D i v e r s i t y, C u lt u r e a n d C o u n s e l l i n g
and tell the donkey that he is the one who has caused the problems by
going off the path and eating the grass; they attack the donkey, kill him
and eat him. Mezlekia concludes by saying that “we children lived like
the donkey, careful not to wander off the beaten trail and end up in the
hyena’s belly” (p. 7).
This is the warning in Mezlekia’s metaphor: being different, like the
donkey, can be dangerous—­though by no fault of the donkey’s own. But
where, really, does the danger lie, and whose life—­real or metaphorical—­is really at stake?
R at i o nal e for D iver s it y and Cro ss- ­C u ltu ral
Co u n s e l l i n g
The rationale for cross-­cultural counselling arises in part from the growing multicultural factor in everyday life and from the increasingly small
world brought about by more efficient communication and transportation systems. In early 2003, as the war in Iraq began, tensions between
Christians and Muslims increased alongside tensions between the
Global North and South. These tensions highlight some of the cultural
differences that divide people around the world.
In counselling, the challenge is to understand differences and enhance
communication among people and, ultimately, across cultures. Of course,
cultural differences exist not just between one group of people in the
West and another group in the Middle East or the Global South or Asia,
but within the borders of nations as well—­not least within Canada’s
borders, and within the larger boarders of North America. Canada is far
from a homogenous nation, and Canadians, including Canadian counsellors, have no choice but to face the challenge of diversity issues and
the changing mosaic of the Canadian nation.
In the political and social environment of 2020, the “new normals”
of coping with the present have created a great deal of anxiety about
the future. North American society cannot close its eyes to the issue of
culture, health, race and economic stability. In a world where most people are not Westerners, Caucasians or Christians, and in a world that is
growing smaller, truly embracing multiculturalism is not only enriching
but also protective. Everyone must be aware that humanity is, in many
ways, acting together as a single community. We collectively have the
power to nurture our world or to destroy it through war and pollution.
War has its genesis in society’s disrespect for people who are different.
People have to learn not only how to control their willingness to harm
C o u n s e l l i n g Ac r o s s C u lt u r e s 11
those who have different customs and views, but also how to live in harmony with others and the environment.
The Cos t of Prejudice, D isc rimin atio n an d R ac ism
Prejudice refers to unfair and negative belief about the inferiority of
people who are different from oneself based on faulty knowledge about
and generalized views of those differences. These differences are usually
be related to any of a variety of factors that are usually out of a person’s
control, including sex, skin colour, ethnicity, language, education level,
age and so on. The term discrimination refers to individual actions or
institutional systems based on prejudiced beliefs that negatively impact
people’s lives. Racism is a specific type of prejudice against certain skin
colours, physical traits and ethnicities. It is important when talking
about discrimination and racism to remember that they are closely tied
to systems of power: while anyone can have prejudiced beliefs about anyone else, it is having the power to act upon these beliefs—­particularly
in systemic ways—­that is the real danger. For this reason, when we talk
about discrimination and racism here, we are speaking specifically about
how Canadian society operates in ways that stack the cards against visible minorities, particularly racialized ones.
Chief Dan George’s words about the nature of prejudice and racism
in Canada resound as truthfully today as they did when he wrote them
over 25 years ago:
It is hard to understand a culture that justifies the killing of millions in past wars and is at this very moment preparing bombs to
kill even greater numbers. It is hard for me to understand a culture
that spends more on wars and weapons to kill, than it does on
education and welfare to help and develop. It is hard for me to
understand a culture that not only hates and fights his brothers
but also even attacks nature and abuses her. (George, 1994, p. 38)
Dimitry Anastakis’s (2015) work looks at some of the human costs of
this racism, recounting stories of violence from Louis Riel to Amanda
Todd that show that this violence has permeated Canadian history and
continues to permeate the Canadian present.
Systemic racism in Canada costs millions of people of colour their
social, economic and literal mobility, their health, their freedom, their
lives. But racism, though prevalent, is not inevitable. It is “a social construction based on sociopolitical attitudes that demean specific racial
characteristics” (Robinson & Howard-­Hamilton, 2000, p. 58). That is, it
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I s s u e s i n D i v e r s i t y, C u lt u r e a n d C o u n s e l l i n g
is not a natural response, but one learned from societal norms and observations of parents, friends and neighbours. Importantly, prejudiced attitudes do not result from constant or repeated negative experience with a
specific group that is different; it is not experience-­based, but reinforced
through social discourses around occasional negative experiences, race-­
based jokes and feelings of in-­group entitlement.
The cost of racism on individuals and communities and for other
people of colour is not minor. In one study looking at the health outcomes of those who experience racism, it was found that
racism was associated with poorer mental health…including
depression, anxiety, psychological stress and various other outcomes. Racism was also associated with poorer general health…
and poorer physical health. (Paradies et al., 2015, p. 1)
In Canada, visible minorities have been subjected to at least three forms
of discrimination: individual racism, institutional racism and cultural
racism. The most obvious forms of individual racism involve personal
expressions that one race is superior to another. Institutional racism is
communicated through established practices that perpetuate inequities.
Cultural racism involves believing in the inferiority of one culture over
another (Este et al., 2018).
The Canadian residential school system is an example of cultural racism. The Canadian government established this system in order to “help”
Indigenous people assimilate into majority society. This program was
based on the assumption that Euro-­Canadian culture was an inherent
improvement on the millennia-­old cultures of Indigenous societies. Of
all the things that the residential school system did, helping Indigenous
communities was not one of them. As the final report of the Truth and
Reconciliation Commission (2015) summarizes, these schools caused
immense suffering, including physical and sexual abuse, forced labour
and destruction of language and culture. It tore children from families
and introduced into Indigenous communities many of the challenges
that are now used to justify this pattern through Canada’s child welfare
system. The human impact of this system and its legacies is enormous.
Indigenous people continue to be penalized in Canada for being culturally different. They continue to deal with the fallout of a system that
neither allowed them citizenship nor allowed them to practise their language and culture. In the words of Chief Dan George:
Do you know what it is like to have your race belittled…? You
don’t know for you have never tasted its bitterness…It is like not
C o u n s e l l i n g Ac r o s s C u lt u r e s 13
caring about tomorrow for what does tomorrow matter? It is having a reserve that looks like a junk yard because the beauty in the
soul is dead…Why should the soul express an external beauty that
does not match it? It is like getting drunk for a few brief moments,
an escape from the ugly reality and feeling a sense of importance.
It is most of all like awaking next morning to the guilt of betrayal.
For the alcohol did not fill the emptiness but only dug it deeper.
(cited in Montigny, 1972, pp. 162–­63)
When people are faced with evidence of prejudice, they tend to reject
it: “I’m not prejudiced against ‘Indians,’ it’s just that most of them want
to live on government assistance.” There is, of course, some cognitive
dissonance going on, because prejudice and racism are difficult to admit.
It is easy for a society to judge situations in other nations as racist or
oppressive, such as apartheid in South Africa or the practices of the
Israeli occupation forces on the West Bank. Some might respond by
saying, “It’s their fault that their culture has disintegrated.” While this
is not an uncommon response, it is a curious one because it blames the
victim for being victimized. But refusing to address racism comes with
serious costs—­for those directly impacted by it most of all, but also for
society at large.
Consider, for example, the Ontario Human Rights Commission
(OHRC, 2020) report about the presence of anti-­Black racism and profiling in the Toronto Police Service. The report found that Black people
in Toronto are disproportionately subject to arrests, charges and use of
force by the city’s police. Although Black people represent just under 9%
of Toronto’s population, they make up 32% of all charges. What’s more,
only 20% of all charges actually result in a conviction. This is no surprise
to those whose communities have been dealing with the impacts of this
discriminatory policing for years: loss of jobs and wages, loss of housing,
loss of children, loss of time, loss of life. But as Moya Teklu (2020), a
Toronto-­based lawyer, points out, this kind of discriminatory policing
not only has terrible human costs for the people unjustly caught in the
criminal justice system, but is an incredibly expensive and wasteful way
of using taxpayers’ money. It costs money to put and keep people in jail:
about $183 per day before trial, and up to $600,000 per year if convicted
(Teklu, 2020). We must, too, consider that almost 80% of charges against
Black people are dropped before their trial, and that many of the charges
that go forward are poverty related.
How can we justify not only these monetary costs, but also the human
ones? The answer is: We can’t. As Teklu says, “Whether you care about
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people, your pocketbook, or both, the OHRC report makes clear that
the cost of policing is too high” (para. 22).
The Cau ses of Conflic t and Preju d ice
Do societies with high ethnic diversity experience more conflict than
those that are more homogeneous? Certainly, one need look no further
than a counselling group session to see that cultural differences are often,
if not usually, the source from which communication issues among group
members spring. But again, like Mezlekia’s (2000) allegory of the donkey,
we need to ask: What is the real danger of this kind of disagreement? Is
it the disagreement itself or the way the disagreement is handled?
There has been a good deal of research examining what creates conflict and gives birth to prejudice. Is it a part of the human experience?
Are people born feeling prejudice? Consider that when people compete
for scarce resources, they form groups to help them get ahead. Often,
these groups are based on similarities within the group. This becomes
the in-­group. Those who are different become the out-­group. Differences could be based on a number of factors including group norms,
language, race, religion or even goals.
However these groups form, people tend to be more generous towards
those in their own groups and less generous towards those from other
groups. In other words, people from one cultural group will be more forgiving of those in their group and less forgiving of those from another
group (Leavitt & McKeown, 2013). The bias is reinforced with each
“negative” experience one has—­but one is also more likely to perceive an
experience as negative, or to contribute to a negative experience, if one
is expecting the experience to be negative in the first place. In the end,
one’s attitude becomes a more rigid and ideological reflection of one’s
cultural norms.
Then there is the reciprocity rule, or the notion of “tit for tat,” in
which if a “wrong” is done, the harmed party retaliates, causing a series of
behaviours that reinforce one’s beliefs. Social comparison is also a factor
in creating a sense of anger, prejudice and aggression. And finally, “triggering” events may lead people to react on the basis of emotion.
These reactionary actions can produce a chain of events that can last
for decades, or even centuries. Consider, for example, the Kosovo situation in which Serbs fought Albanians. Historical wrongs were enmeshed
within the differing groups’ attitudes about each other. The Turkish
invasion during the sixteenth century continues to be played out in the
C o u n s e l l i n g Ac r o s s C u lt u r e s 15
twenty-­first century. People adopt these historical attitudes and make
them part of their behaviour, thus creating another myth that reinforces
prejudice.
This reinforced prejudice fuels a tendency to exaggerate one’s similarities with one’s in-­group while also exaggerating one’s differences with
out-­groups. People react to each other based on their group membership.
Since they do not know the others, viewing the others as faceless and
interchangeable is common. This “facelessness” of the other facilitates
conflict among different groups through a process of dehumanization of
those who are other.
The dehumanization of “enemies” can clearly be observed when
examining the emotional demonstrations of Afghans shouting, “Down
with America!” or the indifference of American leaders to the welfare of
civilians during the long war against the Taliban. During and after the
2016 election, American President Donald Trump constantly demonized Mexicans and Central Americans as “rapist and criminals,” ignoring
the fact that over 25% of the United States are Mexican American: loyal
citizens of the United States overrepresented in US military service. In
politics and in war, politicians dehumanize the other in order to sustain
hate and facilitate domination by alleviating any guilt one nation or individual citizens may feel about their treatment of other human beings.
These rationalizations are really a façade for an attitude that allows people to treat their in-­group differently than out-­groups.
Many of the issues that have divided people historically are still
unchanged. Over time the enemy changes, but the process of dehumanizing stays the same. As mentioned, some research evidence suggests
that individuals need to maintain a sense of group distinctiveness (Berry
et al., 2002). Sometimes people refer to this group belonging as “group
pride”—­but why does pride hinge on a feeling of superiority over and a
putting down, dehumanization or even destruction of the other? Pride
in doing things well or in a feeling of solidarity with one’s ethnic or cultural group is beneficial, but when it evolves into in-­group superiority, it
becomes destructive.
Still, the importance of common goals in the creation of in-­and
out-­groups is worth emphasizing. People who have different goals but
are otherwise similar become frustrated with those whose goals differ
from their own. In fact, according to Baron et al. (1992), people become
less aggressive, and thus more cooperative—­thereby reducing prejudice
toward aspects unrelated to goals—­if goals are mutual despite other dissimilarities. Friendships develop and differences of colour or race are
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minimized when goals are mutual. Yes, hostilities can still arise between
those with different goals, but the point I want to emphasize here is this:
cooperative activities can reduce racial and other tension if all parties
work intentionally in a strategic alliance. Leavitt and McKeown (2013)
use the term cooperative intelligence (CI) to describe those who prioritize
cooperation over conflict:
In a high-­CI group…the typical reaction is increased productivity.
This group understands that the solution to the problem resides in
applying their collective knowledge and skills to help each other
work toward a solution, and that means that problems or setbacks
catalyze a greater output of energy and effort. (p. 157)
Those high in CI are not motivated by an “us-­versus-­them” mentality, but by collective action. They are thus more able to break down
group boundary lines. The more people foster the notion that there are
multiple explanations or sides to an issue, the less the chance there is that
we will be ignorant and fear the unknown. Fear, after all, is the culprit
behind racism.
An Op p o r t unit y for Couns ellin g an d Th erapy
Regardless of our language, race or culture, every community is interdependent with others. Therefore, when society discriminates, marginalizes
and ostracizes people because they are different, everyone suffers. Canadian society has come a long way in being more accepting of differences
among people. Still, it has a long way to go in creating a society that truly
respects diversity. The same is true of the counselling profession.
According to Alexander and Mitchell (2017), when diverse cultures
are added into the mix of the counselling process, the process itself—­
which, in North America, is largely based in Eurocentric traditions of
thought—­is challenged. Alexander and Mitchell propose the following
eight challenges to counselling that must be addressed for competent
multicultural counselling to be possible:
1. Counsellors must supplement familiar rules of objective, rational
thought with a tolerance and appreciation of logical inconsistency,
paradox and subjective ways of knowing.
2. Counsellors must appreciate the importance of collectivism over
individualism in some cultures and relationships.
3. Counsellors must challenge in themselves the implicit or explicit
belief that modernization and Westernization has better solutions
to our world’s problems than other cultures.
C o u n s e l l i n g Ac r o s s C u lt u r e s 17
4. Counsellors must understand that “change” and “progress” are
not inherently good for their own sakes, and that clients may
experience change as both good and bad at the same time.
5. Counsellors should welcome the metaphor of natural ecological
settings, and how they remind us of the many unknown and
perhaps unknowable mysteries of the relationships among people
and their environments.
6. Counsellors should question the perceived absoluteness of
categories such as problem and solution, success and failure.
7. Counsellors should learn to recognize that new theoretical and
methodological approaches to counselling are needed to deal with
the complexity of diverse cultural interactions.
8. Counsellors should understand that the need for a grounded
theory of multicultural counselling is essential to all counsellors
and is not an exotic or specialized perspective.
Therapists and counsellors in Canada are in a unique position to bring
about a more just society in a multicultural country. Racism and othering
forces such as sexism, classism, ageism and so on permeate the very foundations of most nations today, but most people are uncomfortable talking
about these forces and their implications, even denying that they exists or
that we are implicated in them. These conversations need to be had, and
these discomforts need to be encountered and processed. Counsellors must
be models for promoting the acceptance of diversity. We must encourage
others not only to be culturally sensitive but also to fight discrimination
and racism. All people are capable of change from day to day and from
situation to situation, but counsellors who work with people from different
cultures have a unique opportunity to act as agents of change.
Ethnic boundaries are changing swiftly, and the world must change
with them. The issue goes much deeper than simply tolerating or accommodating the multicultural fact of Canadian society. We must change
the structures of our society, originally designed for a homogeneous,
White, European population, to structures that support and celebrate
the diverse reality of our country today. Indeed, this multicultural reality
is already changing the nature of a Eurocentric counselling theory and
practice into a system that emphasizes diversity and a world perspective.
D i ve r s it y Cons iderat ions fo r Co u n sello rs
According to Arthur (2019), a multicultural orientation has tremendous
implications for counselling practice because being knowledgeable and
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sensitive to cultural diversity makes all the difference between success
and failure. Multicultural counselling is concerned with the usual developmental issues, but with the added element of cultural differences. We
live in a society that demands that we become engaged in intercultural
communication for our survival. If the interaction is to be significant,
and if cross-­cultural communication and multiculturalism are to foster increased understanding and cooperation, then counsellors must be
aware of the factors that may affect how we relate to others. Counsellors
must not only avoid actions that hinder effective communication but
also be actively engaged in helping others deal with diversity issues. It
is axiomatic to suggest that the success of cross-­cultural communication
may well depend on the attitudes and philosophies people adopt. The
ways in which people in a group relate to each other often reflects their
larger philosophy towards life and themselves.
Cultural Influences
Culture is a human necessity. It is the way in which people establish
and maintain relationships with each other and with their environment.
According to many social scientists, culture is both a critical aspect of a
person’s lifestyle and an essential element of human behaviour. While the
clothes people wear and the attitudes they voice may reflect the dominant culture they inhabit, it is their cultural background that shapes their
thinking and their feelings; as the expression goes, “blood is thicker than
water.” There are strong indicators that cultural conditioning reflects
how people communicate with others (Pedersen et al., 2016). As people
of understanding interact with those who are culturally different, they
must explore the socialization forces that affect behaviour, values and
language.
For example, consider the way in which you were taught to relate to
the natural world. Many people brought up in the Canadian colonial and
Eurocentric context have learned to stress the importance of controlling
the natural world, and to see what is in control as good and what is out of
control as bad. Such ideas about control of the natural world bleed into
ideas of how humanity ought to be treated. If people are not “good”—­
that is, if they are not consistent with societal norms—­then they need
to be controlled. Taking this attitude one step further, people may also
seek to control the urges they feel within themselves. Even in a relatively
homogeneous population, there are cultural differences that are easier to
be aware of in others than in the self.
All human beings have at least one thing in common: no matter who
people are or where they are from, they are human beings. But we tend
C o u n s e l l i n g Ac r o s s C u lt u r e s 19
to make much of the biological difference that distinguish us. Some
biological differences include age, shape, size, colour and sex. With few
exceptions, these differences are not up to us. In all societies, biological
differences have produced attitudes relating to behaviour and how people interact with others. For example, someone large is viewed as powerful and possibly aggressive; as a result, more deference may be shown
towards that person. A big and muscular person may be seen as a brute,
a lean and slight person as effeminate, someone with rough features as
unrefined; in some groups, plumpness is considered healthy and beautiful while in others it is seen as unhealthy and unattractive. The cultural
norms that dictate reactions to biological differences are infinite, with
each group having its own interpretation about the meaning of these
characteristics.
All cultures are affected psychologically by various influences on the
group. People in the group are continuously subjected to pressures to
conform to the norms of the group. In this respect, personality is to
a large extent formed through group norms. The family, as a primary
socializing agent, is responsible for the basic values people exhibit. This
is particularly true of cultures that value respect for authority, tradition
and learning. Exposure to significant others, relatives, friends, teachers
and peers enhances one’s repertoire, inculcating the social mores and
behaviours of the entire culture. This trait is obvious if we compare the
ways people feel, think and act in different cultures. For example, according to Salagame (2011), people from different places in the world have
different constructs of self:
It is observed, in general, that the Western Concept of Self is of
an individual who is separate, autonomous, and atomized (made
up of a set of discrete traits, abilities, values, and motives, seeking
separateness and independence from others). In contrast, in Eastern cultures relatedness, connectedness, and interdependence are
sought, rooted in a concept of the self not as a discrete entity, but
as inherently linked to others. The person is only made “whole”
when situated in his or her place in a social unit. (p. 133)
Behaviour may also be affected by ideology or one’s characteristic manner of thinking (e.g., assertions, theories or aims). The ideological foundation of an individual’s culture will, to a large degree, have an impact on
their behaviour. It is from such foundations that people derive religious,
social and political beliefs that direct and govern their behaviour. Being
born in a certain culture occasions the display of certain characteristics
that are behaviourally right for that culture. In other words, people have
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a cultural or national way of thinking and seeing the world, which is
reflected in their language, values and beliefs, norms, sociopolitical history and the like. The ideological differences can be observed in the
behaviour of group members who come from different ethnic groups.
The ideology of a nation dictates to people certain attitudes, beliefs
and ways of thinking that frame their existence. Beliefs about life, death
and marriage, for instance, determine relationship behaviours. People
tend to respond to their environment in consistent ways that are dictated by the attitudes of their society. Minority cultures often must partially adopt the ideology of the dominant culture in which they live in
order to survive, but this adoption may or may not be fully ingrained
in their personality. Consider that even after three generations of living in
the United States, some children and adolescents of Mexican American
families have still modified their basic Mexican cultural characteristics
in only a few small ways (Padilla, 2016). Yet people living as minorities in a dominant culture are also dissimilar to their cultures of origin.
For example, African Canadians and Arab Canadians may have more in
common with one another than with people in Ethiopia or Jordan. This
dissimilarity creates a strain for visible minorities who can feel that they
are neither here nor there. It is also true that some beliefs and values
are more affected by gender than cultural differences—­for instance, the
belief that men have more freedom of choice regardless of culture or
intersectional aspects of their identity (e.g., race, religion, ability, etc.).
Environmental or ecological forces also influence culture and behaviour. Climate, terrain, prosperity and population density also play a role
in developing distinct cultural norms. Someone born on an isolated
island may develop a different view of the world than someone born on
a large continent or in a crowded city. People born in highly populated
areas may have to be more assertive because that is the only way to survive, while someone born in a less populous area may be more relaxed
and quieter.
Cross-­C ultural Communications
As a primary form of communication, language is of great importance to
people in groups. Language patterns reflect people’s culture or subculture:
People of all cultures communicate and use language—­a major
similarity across people around the globe. At the same time,
language also stands out as one of the most salient differences
observed across cultures. Language contributes to both understanding and misunderstanding between peoples. Yet, no matter
C o u n s e l l i n g Ac r o s s C u lt u r e s 21
how different they may seem, all languages have in common
certain key characteristics, while continuing to possess their own
unique features. (Kreiner, 2019, p. 357)
Thus, it becomes easy to imagine why people who do have different cultural and linguistic backgrounds misunderstand each other. When people
encounter cultural and language differences, miscommunication is a risk.
As Kreiner (2019) reminds us, this is not an insurmountable challenge:
“We…have the flexibility to make adjustments in our language use and
in our assumptions about the language use of others. Our shared capacity for flexible thinking opens the door to understanding other cultures”
(p. 371). Still, a counsellor should be prepared for cross-­cultural misunderstandings. Being sensitive to and aware of others’ frames of reference
is elementary in any counselling scenario, but it is particularly significant
when working with those of diverse cultural backgrounds. In some ways
the following list of stumbling blocks applies to almost any group but is
especially pertinent in cross-­cultural counselling:
Language: Vocabulary, syntax, idiom, slang and dialect can create problems of understanding. The problem is the tenacity with
which people cling to “the” meaning of a word or phrase in the
new language, regardless of its connotation or the context.
Nonverbal communication: People from different cultures employ
different nonverbal sensory [cues]. They see, hear, feel and smell
only that which has some meaning or importance for them. They
extract whatever significance fits their personal world of recognition and then interpret it through the frame of reference of their
own culture.
Tendency to evaluate: Some people from different cultures need to
approve or disapprove the statements and actions of others, rather
than try to comprehend the thoughts and feelings expressed. This
bias prevents the open-­minded attention needed to look at attitudes and behaviour patterns from others’ frames of reference. This
is heightened when feelings and emotions are deeply involved. Yet
this is the time when listening with understanding is most needed.
As counsellors, we especially need to examine values that are negatively evaluative towards those who are different.
High anxiety: This stumbling block is not distinct but underlies
and compounds the others. Its presence is very common because
of uncertainties present when people function in a foreign language where the normal flow of verbal and nonverbal interaction
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cannot be sustained. There is a sense of threat by the unknown
knowledge, experience and evaluation of others. This sense of
threat and uncertainty brings the potential for scrutiny and rejection by the self. There is also the added tension of having to cope
with the differing pace, climate and culture. Self-­esteem is often
intolerably undermined unless people employ defences such as
withdrawal into their reference group or into themselves, thus
screening out or misperceiving stimuli, rationalizing, overcompensating or even showing hostility. (France, 2002, p. 219)
An inaccurate picture of another person’s issue formed from verbal
responses—­or in some cases formed from what is not said—­produces
real conflict. Certain phrases in one language may be uninterpretable in
another or, if translated literally, may not convey the many dimensions
the phrase encompasses.
Some words, phrases or expressions might have negative meanings
that are acceptable to some people from a cultural group but not to others. For example, many high school and professional sports teams have
names and logos like “Braves,” “Indians” and “Redskins.” Indigenous
communities have protested such names on the basis that they reinforce
negative stereotypes, use Aboriginal images and icons in a disrespectful
manner and trivialize their ethnic background. An incident in greater
Vancouver, for instance, created controversy when the Musqueam name
Spull’u’kwuks was proposed for a school. Authorities felt the name,
meaning “place of bubbling waters,” risked being used in a negative
way because of the potential for rhyming with derogatory words. The
response from the Musqueam First Nation was that “it was their language [and] it should be celebrated, not made the subject of humour”
(France, 2002).
Even nonverbal gestures are relatively different from culture to culture. According to Matsumoto and Juang (2012), “being unaware of
these differences can definitely cause problems” (p. 352) because each
culture develops unique patterns of nonverbal communication. Eye
contact and personal space, for example, differ from culture to culture.
Arabic societies gaze even longer than North Americans do (Matsumoto & Juang, 2012), but the degrees of eye contact may have different
implications for different cultures. In North America, people are taught
that eye contact communicates closeness and attention, while lack of eye
contact communicates dislike, lack of interest or disrespect. According to
Sue et al. (2019), White middle-­class people, when speaking to others,
look away (i.e., avoid eye contact) approximately 50% of the time. When
C o u n s e l l i n g Ac r o s s C u lt u r e s 23
White people listen, however, they make eye contact with the speaker
over 80% of the time. Black people, on the other hand, make more eye
contact when speaking and infrequent eye contact when listening. This
difference reinforces the idea that we should be careful when we try to
attribute reasons for the amount of eye contact we encounter; eye contact is not necessarily related to aggressiveness, shyness or inattentiveness, but rather may depend on cultural patterns.
Physical distance is another cultural variable. Francophones touch
more in conversation and kiss those they feel close to, while Anglophones touch far less and rarely kiss in greeting. In North America,
proximity is closely related to relationships. In intimate relationships,
people may be as close as zero to one and a half feet from one another; in
a personal relationship, one and a half to four feet; in a social consultative relationship, four to eight feet; and in a public relationship, up to ten
feet. According to Matsumoto and Juang (2012), Latino(a)s feel more
comfortable in close proximity across the board than those of European
ancestry.
According to Pedersen et al. (2016), socioeconomic factors further
affect the way people communicate and interact. For example, groups
with members from lower economic and educational levels appear to
prefer more concrete and structured activities. These people may want
direct advice or at least a chance to talk in terms of concreteness and
tangible outcomes. In general, those in the lower socioeconomic spheres
report that counselling activities are all talk and no action (Pedersen
et al., 2016). In addition, people from different cultures may be unfamiliar with the dynamics of counselling sessions or counselling groups,
which may be incongruous with what they expect. This inexperience
may in turn block their progress.
Understanding, Interpreting and Responding
As counsellors, we must be aware of and able to identify the values of
different people that we work with. All people tend to project their cultural values in their behaviour and in their verbal and emotional expressions. Obviously, these differences may create distances between people.
Individuals from some cultural groups may be reluctant to disclose
their feelings because their culture places a high priority on restraint in
expressing feelings and thoughts, particularly to strangers. If one misinterprets the reasons behind the reluctance to self-­disclose, the results
may produce a block of communication, severe anxiety and extreme
discomfort.
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I s s u e s i n D i v e r s i t y, C u lt u r e a n d C o u n s e l l i n g
Another important cultural value is the family relationship. People
of European ancestry and those acculturated by this ancestry tend to
centre on personal responsibility; their decisions may be made based
on the good of the individual. Other cultures emphasize the family or
the collective good. If someone from a culture that emphasizes family
involvement in decision-­making makes a personal decision, the family
might block attempts to achieve the individual’s goals. One Asian Canadian client, for example, stated: “Whenever I disagreed with my mother,
it seemed to her that I was questioning her character” (France, 2002,
p. 220). In this client’s family, the authority of the parents is paramount
and not to be questioned by the child. When the client made a decision
without consulting her family, her mother felt hurt and angry. The client loved her mother but felt a desire to assert her individuality, and this
desire produced many conflicting feelings.
There are also positive aspects to cultural values in which adult
children make important choices only after consulting with their parents. For example, a Brazilian woman, age 30, said that she and her
husband felt it necessary to ask her parents whether their decision to
buy a particular apartment was a good one. Upon hearing her, a Canadian male responded that if he asked his parents what they thought,
the response would be: “You’re an adult now; decide what you think
is best.”
Multicultural experiences can enhance a counsellor’s personal power
and improve overall communication skills not only with culturally different clients but with clients in general. What counsellors say and do can
either promote or reduce their credibility and effectiveness with others.
Their style of self-­disclosure, perceived trustworthiness and approach to
counselling emphasize just a few of the variables. In this regard, the cultural background of counsellors is not as important to how effective they
are as the way their credibility, approachableness and trustworthiness are
perceived by clients.
That being said, in studies on evaluating the effects of counsellors’
race and ethnic background on perceived effectiveness in communication, people were affected by the person’s race and ethnic background
either negatively or positively (cited in France, 2002). However, in other
studies in counselling situations, the evidence suggests that, for culturally
different people, the issue of expertise is raised more often than whether
the person has a similar cultural or racial background (Pedersen et al.,
2016). In other words, using appropriate communication skills and strategies that are congruent with the client’s values is more important than
race or ethnic background.
C o u n s e l l i n g Ac r o s s C u lt u r e s 25
There seems to be no particular communication strategy that proves
more successful with specific populations. Yet the approach used by counsellors from the majority culture must be consistent with other cultures’
lifestyles and must involve flexibility for individual differences within a
culture. Not all people with a similar cultural background behave in the
same way.
Treating everyone in exactly the same way without regard to their
cultural context and background or their life experience may, in a counselling context, be discriminatory treatment. Using an approach that
assumes that everyone is the same without recognizing differences may
have a negative effect and is likely to be alienating to those who communicate differently. Approaches such as Atkinson et al.’s (1993) three-­
dimensional model (see Chapter 11) attempt to take these differences
into consideration while providing a practical approach to effective
counselling across cultures. If we could all be more aware and appreciate
other cultures and their different attributes and individual expressions,
perhaps we could be more accepting of the cultural differences and individual needs of others.
The Process of Cultural Adjustment
The process of adaptation is a universal phenomenon that everyone
experiences simply by growing from infancy to adulthood within a given
cultural milieu. For those adjusting to new cultures, however, the process
has its own particular challenges.
For many newcomers to a culture, there is a “honeymoon period”
in adjustment in which the newcomer is enthusiastic. According to
Oberg (1960), this is followed by the anxiety, frustration and adjustment difficulties of “culture shock.” However, as the newcomer develops new coping mechanisms specific to their new cultural milieu, these
dissipate. Building on Oberg’s U-­shaped model of cultural adjustment,
Ting-­Toomey (1999) proposed a W-­shaped model, suggesting that individuals typically experience waves of alternating satisfaction and dissatisfaction as they adjust to a new culture.
According to Sciarra (1999), “counselors working with clients from
non-­dominant cultural backgrounds need to assess their acculturative
levels and the amount of stress resulting from living in a different environment” (p. 25). Chung (2019) builds on this, saying that
the degree of intercultural development influences an individual’s
capacity to function in a multicultural society by undergoing the
struggle to manage the stress, the need to successfully adapt, and
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I s s u e s i n D i v e r s i t y, C u lt u r e a n d C o u n s e l l i n g
the maintenance of identity distinctiveness. The result is an intercultural identity, defined as an increase in the individual’s capacity to integrate conflicting cultural demands into a cohesive new
whole. (pp. 385–­86)
Such is the challenge of being oneself while also striving to connect with
others who may be different. How one does this can determine how safe
one feels in any different cultural situation. Three categories of processes
of adaptation that strive to deal with this challenge have been identified
(Chung, 2019; see also Chapter 8; Chapter 17, Acculturation section):
1. Unidirectional: Adapting to one culture and away from another
2. Bidirectional: Adapting by moving back and forth between two
cultures while feeling at home in both
3. Multidirectional: Adapting to other cultures but feeling positively
grounded in one’s own culture.
Racial/Ethnic/Cultural Identity
Regardless of how a person adapts to new cultural situations, their cultural roots bind them and this binding in turn affects how they feel
about themselves and are perceived by others. In other words, being connected to one’s culture is important to identity because it is a vehicle to
self-­acceptance—­it is the first step to being able to “place” oneself.
Racial/ethnic identity development may be defined as pride in one’s
racial, ethnic and cultural heritage. People who have strong cultural identities seem to have a greater sense of control about their lives. Sue et al.
(2019) suggest that counsellors’ cultural identity can adversely affect how
they interact with clients by reinforcing negative self-­esteem if the client is experiencing dissonance about their cultural development. Helms
(2010) suggests that if majority-­culture counsellors want to understand
minority people (and vice versa), they must understand their identity
development. Helms thus proposes two models of identity development
to describe how minorities form their identity compared to the majority group. The first—­the majority identity development model—­has six
stages:
1. Lack of awareness: A person from the majority culture has no
sense that there are any differences in cultures simply because
they have had no contact with different cultures.
2. Contact: The person has contact with someone who is different.
This stage is characterized by curiosity and the recognition that
C o u n s e l l i n g Ac r o s s C u lt u r e s 27
3.
4.
5.
6.
there are differences among people: colour, race, language and so
on.
Conflict: Once differences are identified, they become
exaggerated, and there is a greater chance for conflict. The person
becomes frustrated and differences create fear; they may become
defensive and sometimes aggressive.
Pro-­minority stance: Once the person understands that conflict
is not a positive option, they begin to reach out to others. In
their desire to connect, the person (from the dominant group)
embraces minority characteristics and values (e.g., language, dress,
etc.). However, this strategy is bound to fail. The person reaching
out is from the majority group; they cannot change where they
are from and they cannot become part of the minority group.
Pro-­majority stance: This stage only occurs when the pro-­
minority stance is not accepted. The dominant group individual
embraces an attitude that is not diverse or accepting of others
(i.e., they support only their own group exclusively).
Internalization: At this stage, the person accepts themselves
as coming from a certain ethnic group and accept others in the
same way. They have a good sense of their own boundaries and
those of others. They recognize that their ethnic identity is a
part of themselves and is built on a positive foundation. They
accept others who are different and value others based on their
behaviours, not their colour.
The second model—­the minority identity development model—­
consists of five stages:
1. Conformity: The person from the minority group accepts
majority standards and values at the cost of their own ethnic
identity.
2. Dissonance: The person perceives a difference between what they
feel and what they experience.
3. Resistance: Based on their sense of dissonance, the person revolts.
A sense of power and even exclusiveness takes place.
4. Introspection: Based on the sense that resistance doesn’t always
accomplish what one wants, the individual looks for reasons and
reflects on the whys and hows of what works and what doesn’t.
5. Synergistic articulation and awareness: This stage occurs when
the individual accepts themselves.
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I s s u e s i n D i v e r s i t y, C u lt u r e a n d C o u n s e l l i n g
Biracial Identity
Poston (1990) developed a third model: the biracial identity development model. Biracial identity development is a complex process and is
more undefined in the literature. Recognizing the increasing numbers
of biracially identified people in North America and elsewhere, Poston’s
model is an attempt to address this problem, though it should be noted
that this progressive developmental model is a tentative model based on
the scant research available on biracial individuals and on information
from supportive groups (Kassan, 2019). Nevertheless, the following five-­
stage model does have implications for personal identity constructs (e.g.,
self-­esteem) for biracial youth:
1. Personal identity: Biracial children tend to display identification
problems when they internalize outside prejudices and values.
Young children’s reference group observation attitudes are not
yet developed, so their identity is primarily based on personal
factors such as self-­esteem and feelings of self-­worth within their
primary reference group.
2. Choice of group categorization: Youth at this stage are pushed to
choose an identity, usually of one ethnic group. Numerous factors
can influence the individual’s identity choice (e.g., status, social
support, personal appeals). It is unusual for an individual to choose a
multiethnic identity at this stage because this choice requires levels
of cognitive development and knowledge about multiple ethnicities/
races/cultures beyond what is characteristic of this age group.
3. Enmeshment or denial: This stage is characterized by confusion
and guilt at having to choose one identity that is not fully
expressive of one’s background. Biracial youth may experience
alienation at the choice stage and make a choice even if they are
uncomfortable with it.
4. Appreciation: Individuals at this stage begin to appreciate their
multiple identities and broaden their reference group orientation.
They might begin to learn about their racial/ethnic/cultural
heritage, but they still tend to identify with one group.
5. Integration: Individuals at this stage experience wholeness and
integration. They tend to recognize and value all of their racial
and ethnic identities. At this level, biracial youth develop a secure,
integrated identity.
This model is similar to Helms’s (2010) models in that it integrates
a lifespan focus, yet different in that it underscores the uniqueness of
biracial identity development. In addition, it recognizes that the most
C o u n s e l l i n g Ac r o s s C u lt u r e s 29
difficult times of adjustment and identification confusion are during the
choice and enmeshment stages. Counsellors and helping professionals
who understand and accept these five stages will be better prepared to
assist biracial youth in their identity development.
Interracial Relationships
Social ostracism and racism continue to be direct stressors on many interracial couplings even though most legal barriers to interracial marriage
and coupling have been abolished. A greater acceptance of interracial
unions exists today than even 15 to 20 years ago (Matsumoto & Juang,
2012). This increase in acceptance is reflected in the steady growth in the
number of interracial couples and their offspring. Helping professionals
therefore need to be cognizant of and prepared to address this increasing
population in their professions. Matsumoto and Juang (2012) say that
studies of intercultural marriages have
shown that conflicts arise in several major areas, including the
expression of love and intimacy, the nature of commitment and
attitudes towards the marriage itself, and approaches to child-­
rearing when couples have children. Other potential sources of
conflict include differences in perceptions of male-­female roles,
differences in domestic money management, differences in perceptions of relationships with extended family and differences in the
definition of marriage itself. (p. 419)
They also note that “anecdotal evidence suggests intercultural marriages are not necessarily associated with higher divorce rates than
intra-­cultural marriages” (p. 421). Thus, the factors that contribute to a
successful intercultural marriage are the same ingredients that make for
successful multicultural counselling—­that is, the ability to compromise
and be flexible, a commitment to the relationship, the ability to negotiate differences existing within the relationship and the desire to stay
together regardless of the challenges.
Co nclus ion
In that moment, he realized that the Land of the Free had
imposed a caste system not unlike the caste system of India
and that he had lived under that system all of his life. What
Martin Luther King, Jr., recognized about his country that
day had begun long before the ancestors of our ancestors
had taken their first breaths. (Wilkerson, 2020, p. 42)
30
I s s u e s i n D i v e r s i t y, C u lt u r e a n d C o u n s e l l i n g
The democratic systems in place in most of the Western world, despite
their assertions to the contrary, have been built on the idea that people
are not equal. They have been built upon slavery, genocide and their legacies. Isabel Wilkerson’s (2020) book Caste: The Origins of our Discontents
echoes this feeling—­one that was brought into sharp relief once again
in the Summer of 2020, after the police killing of George Floyd in the
United States. Once again, we have been reminded that we as a society
need to change. Once again, all signs have pointed to the fact that “caste
makes distinctions where God has made none” (Wilkerson, 2020, p. 44).
Why is it that this message has required so much repeating?
People, like nations, have a tendency to look at the world beyond
themselves from their own perspective. This is natural and perhaps necessary, for all people are “prisoners” of a particular space and time. We
are all tied, after all, to our own bodies, our own points of view. One way
to look at this situation is to see everyone as a stranger; another is to see
everyone as a neighbour. The challenge for counsellors is to develop their
cultural sensitivity while maintaining a sense and an understanding of
their own cultural identity.
Many attitudes and behaviours are deeply ingrained in people’s
psyches and many of them are subject to ethnocentrism. The challenge
for counsellors is to help people become grounded in their cultural identity, develop an appreciation for others who are culturally different, and
look for ways of reaching out to others who are different. The changes
required are not simple, nor are they easy. They require that people possess a willingness to communicate, show empathy toward those from
different backgrounds, tolerate views that differ from their own and
develop a more open approach to communication with others from different cultural groups. In order to increase societal acceptance of people
who are different, more contact with among different cultural groups
is particularly important (Rieger, 2015). If people have the resolve and
desire to adapt their behaviours and attitudes to overcome ethnocentrism, they may begin to know the feelings of exhilaration that come
when they have made contact with those from cultures far removed from
their own sphere of experience. They may, further, come to understand
the way in which, in this globalizing world, we are, all of us, interdependent. This willingness to realize interdependency is voiced eloquently by
McGaa (1990):
Our survival is dependent on the realization that Mother Earth is
a truly holy being, that all things in this world are holy and must
not be violated, and that we must share and be generous with one
C o u n s e l l i n g Ac r o s s C u lt u r e s 31
another…Think of your fellow men and women as holy people
who were put here by the Great Spirit. Think of being related to
all things. (p. 208)
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