The Impact Of Feminism, Transcultural Awareness And Online Delivery Of Service On Counselling Field
The advancement of a more global and digital perspective in counselling field during the past two decades has been influenced by either feminist perspective, transcultural awareness or online delivery of service. The main question here is how might counselling practice be influenced by the factors stated? First, feminist therapy is not an approach but is rather a perspective that can be incorporated in any form of therapy. It is way to psychotherapy that concentrates on gender and the certain challenges and sources of stress that women face as a result of neglect, oppression, stereotyping, judging, discrimination and other elements that jeopardizes the mental health of a woman (Enns, 1997). Generally, feminist therapy surfaced from the liberations of women movements in the 1960s. Women at that point of time started to voice out their dissatisfaction and discontentment with the constricting disposition of traditional female roles, (Worell & Johnson, 2001).
The concept is that people should have the freedom to behave and act without conforming to social expectations and stereotypical gender role, is the main idea of feminist therapy. Personal experiences are entrenched in the social-cultural-political context according to feminist therapist. Therefore, therapist will encourage the explorations of gender-role socialization, the issue of power in relationship and other factors in the environment that plays a vital role in shaping and conditioning client’s unique identities, self–esteem, self-perception, behaviours and choices. This therapy developed out of the deep dissatisfaction of traditional practices that were experienced as non-validating to women (Worell & Johnson, 2001). Feminist therapies directed in assisting women to adjust themselves to the social structure. Therapies proposed the idea of social change, and the concept of people having the freedom of self-expressions instead of conforming or succumbing to the cultural stigmas and gender roles that the culture believe are correct and are fitting to their cultural “norms”. Originally, feminist therapy tends to exclusively focused on women and not men, this includes both as clients or even therapist.
However, nowadays feminist therapy includes male clients as well as therapists in the loop at the same time seeking culturally fair ways to introduce and illustrate traditional psychotherapeutic theories and techniques, (Sharf, 2003). On top of that, men can also benefit from feminist perspective, as they too might feel restricted by the gender stereotypes and social expectations that the society portrays. The bottom line for feminist therapy are the notions of empowerment and de-pathologizing. Instead of emphasising on an individual’s weaknesses or the remediation of symptoms, the therapy is focused on the individual’s strength, talent and capabilities. In example, feminist perspective made a huge contribution to the theory and practices of trauma, notably the sexual abuse trauma. The word trauma was “normalized” and “symptoms” became “coping skills”, meanwhile “victims” were deemed as “survivors” (Burstow, 1992). Feminist therapy addresses social problems such as sexual abuse, incest, eating disorders; bulimic or anorexic and body shaming issues, (Dambrot & Reep, 1993). The highlight of the feminist perspective is that it set forth the way to a different technique or style of the therapeutic relationship. Showing sensitivity as how power differences may bring impact to the people, striving to achieve egalitarian relationships between therapist and clients, demystify the therapy process and inspire the client to be an equal participant in the assessment and treatment process (Corey, 2009; Matlin, 2008).
The quest towards empowerment begins with handing over the power and control to the clients in a therapeutic state. Having said that the therapist holds the psychological knowledge, but it is the clients who has the power to control themselves. It is the role of the therapist to be genuine and congruent professionals, in such circumstances that people are truly empowered and inspired in searching of their identities and extend the spectrum of possibilities in their lives. The feminist therapy approach also helps to allow the client to understand the social and psychological factors that contributes to their problems. In addition, this method also helps in uncovering the client’s unique identities as well as polishing their personal strengths to bring the best out of them (Brown, 2004). Culture is basically an intricate concept and there is barely any consensus achieved in the literature to define culture. There are many definitions of culture, and it affects the notion, values, attitudes, norms or the patterns of behaviour that the people in that society do. Culture is not customarily inherited, there is no way it existed on its own, instead is always shared by the member of its society (Hall, 1976). Out of the many definitions, Mulholland (1991), define cultures as a set of shared and enduring meaning, values and beliefs that represent or symbolize national, ethnic, or other groups and adjust to their behaviour.
Culture represents the identity of the nation and it is impossible for the society if there is no culture. Culture is the foundation of the community that directs the society to the ways of living. Other than that, culture equip solutions to the vital problems that the community faced. It also emphasizes on unity and cooperation where it teaches the society to think for the whole nation and not just individuality (Hofstede, 1997). Transcultural counselling believes that counselling and therapies can appear across cultures, ethnicities, nations and continents. American philosophy exports their mainstream models of counselling and psychotherapy to Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, South America, and the Pacific Rim countries. In reality, these models reject the realities of non-western thinking styles. In addition, these models violate immigrants, ethnic minorities, women, people with disabilities and different lifestyles in the United States (Ibrahim, 1991). Also in the United States, where Asian American are under-represented in counselling and therapies and when they do seek for assistance, they tend to terminate the service prematurely. (Atkinson, Morten, & Sue, 1998; U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2001).
The main challenge to this problem is the language barriers as well as their perception of therapy as irrelevant or unaccustomed to resolve mental disorders (Li & Logan, 2000; Li, Logan, Yee, & Ng, 1999; Nagayama Hall, 2001). The Chinese culture specifically has the stigma or taboo of mental disorders and associate it with shame make it even difficult for them to seek help. (Li et al. , 1999; Lin, Tseng, & Yeh, 1995; Uba, 1994). Eastern and Western culture for example has a vast difference in values and beliefs system thus making it one of the reasons why Chinese clients terminate therapy prematurely. Chinese values strong sense of collectivism, the centrality of the family, filial piety, hierarchical relationships, academic achievement, humility, and emotional self- control (Kim, Atkinson, & Yang, 1999; D. W. Sue & Sue, 2003). These values play a crucial role the Chinese identity and how they make sense of the problems they are facing, also what the expectations of the therapy. It has been recognised for many years that therapies should be culturally “sensitive” or “responsive” (Zane, Nagayama Hall, Sue, Young, & Nunez, 2004). Mamud Baba (2015), stated that building a good therapeutic relationship should never be underestimated and time is vital in this matter. Nonetheless, careful considerations during the initial meeting of a client who belongs to a different culture need to be consider carefully. Therapist will likely be able to spot the reasons of why they needed help in the first place. Therapist need to understand how to work with particular cultural issues and attending certain cultural groups. This is due to conscious and unconscious perceptions and assumptions, such as strong religious and political beliefs will be the communication of the client.
Transcultural training, supervision and personal development is essential for therapists. When the therapist has yet to explore their own prejudice and judgment about a certain cultural groups and practices, this can result to clients terminating their therapy prematurely. Pedersen, Fukuyama, and Heath (1989) on the other hand noted that research on client, counsellor, and contextual variables obtained mixed results. The suggestion that promote the therapist to be culturally sensitive and aware to serve the client’s needs have not yet proved the effectivity (S. Sue & Zane, 1987). Moreover, culture oppression threat issues may arise if the culture specific techniques applied to the various culture without any attention to appropriateness of the technique to the specific client. Cultural factors for the treatment of minority clients have garnered a tremendous attention within this field, but the service being rendered to the clients remain incompetent at a certain level (S, Sue, 1988). Most probably it is due to the lack of bilingual and bicultural therapist in the industry, biases and stereotypes that therapist hold onto, as well as the failure of the counsellors in providing culturally responsive and sensitive forms of treatment to the client (Ibrahim, Stadler, Arredondo, & McFadden, 1986; Ponterotto & Casas, 1987). Online delivery of service or online counselling and therapy refers to equipping the clients the provision on psychotherapy interventions delivered through the internet, either synchronously or asynchronously and whether it is in individual or group settings (Barak et al. , 2009). A synchronous communication take place in real-time meanwhile the latter is identified by the lag of time between contacts (Perle et al. , 2011). Emails and forums which do not automatically provide instantaneous response is considered as asynchronous, whereas methods of communications that allows real-time communication service such as video calls or chat through Skype or Whatsapp, would be considered as synchronous.
There are numerous advantages when it comes to online counselling. One of it is that online counselling offers convenient assistance, flexibility and remote access in serving the clients with limited mobility, time restrictions and reducing awkwardness of the client to see the therapist in person (Powell, 1998). Besides that, online counselling transcends the issue of distance thus enabling the access of psychological help to those who needs it especially those who lives in underserved populations and remote areas (Robson & Robson, 2000). Likewise, those with disabilities, terminal ill, senior citizens and housebound may benefit greatly from online deliver services. Other than that, online environment minimizes social cues, thus creating an illusion of confidentiality that might decrease perceptions of interpersonal risk and made it easier for client to delivers their emotional issues (Wellman, 1997).
However, before conducting the clinical application of online counselling they are other key areas that requires attention. First is competence, online counselling is equipped with unique features that distinguish it from traditional counselling, thus a specialized training is needed to ensure the competence of therapist (Martin et al. , 2015). Nevertheless, in a survey conducted by Finn and Barak (2010), only 6% out of 94 master’s trained counsellor had received formal training in the online delivery of counselling and therapy services. Next, online counselling service are generally in a greater risk when it comes to privacy and confidentiality (Martin et al. , 2015). Even though precautions to ensure the security of electronic transmissions is taken seriously, there is always risk of virus or hacking that may occur. Other than that, accidental delivery of information in the form of emails to unintended recipients is unfortunately a common mistake among both laypersons and counselling professionals. One thing to another shall lead to the breaching of confidentiality between the client and the therapist.
These are some of the most common ethical problems faced by online counselling practitioners (Martin et al. , 2015). It is the same as other counselling context that therapist must produce informed consent from clients in order to carry out online counselling service. A full discloser is required in order for the client to knowingly and freely consent, hence asserting the client’s right to self-determination (Recupero, 2005). It includes the establishment of roles, expectations and right of all parties, also providing ample information to the client regarding this non-traditional way of counselling and that includes the risks and benefits of this service. In its many forms and functions, customizable to fit each therapist and client’s situation, counselling practice can be influenced by the factors discussed. As the practice continues to advance and evolve with new technology and arising issues, it is also necessary to consider what directions counselling practice may move in to pursue the needs and well-being of the clients.
