South Africa is one of the most diverse nations in the world. As the 21st century unfolds, it is increasingly evident that South African counsellors should become better equipped and more insightful with respect to the realities of multiculturalism and diversity as this pertains to their therapeutic practice.
Multiculturalism accepts the existence of different worldviews. It entertains the existence of multiple cultural perspectives and belief systems. Within multicultural environments, the term diversity could be used to describe differences in race, culture, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, age, religion and physical ability or disability in a given context.1
Counselling takes place in a diverse cultural context
It is important that counsellors who practice within cross-cultural environments should adopt this broader perspective on diversity in culture; and observe that diversity, as seen in contemporary society, is reflected in far broader terms than only along racial or ethnic lines.
Counselling in the ‘cross-cultural zone’ – one size does not fit all
While it stands to reason that any counsellor who claims to be culturally competent must ground his or her counselling practice in a solid understanding of the history, as well as the social contexts, which continue to shape the society in which they practice, it also holds true that cultural competence takes cognisance of the unique cultural make up of each individual client.
Furthermore, within the scope of therapeutic intervention, a primary emphasis of culturally competent counselling is to examine the nature of the counselling relationship when there are significant cultural differences between the counsellor and person being counselled.
Cross-cultural counselling can be liberating and empowering
A counsellor who is sensitive to a client’s experience of any form of discrimination – be it any form of oppression, sexism, elitism, or racism – must realise that culturally competent counselling is a vehicle for client liberation and empowerment. Seen as such, cross-cultural counselling can help a client combat the negative effects of being marginalised, and help counter the internalisation of their perceived inferiority as a worldview. This world view would be associated with the perception of their subordinate status in societal relationships with others who are supposedly “superior”. 2
Being indigenous in practice is to be relevant in an appropriate context
South Africa’s culturally diverse population results in EAP counsellors routinely encountering employees across a number of diverse cultural groups, each presenting with different cultural, religious and spiritual beliefs. EAP practitioners and counsellors need to be familiar with a range of intervention strategies and acquire a variety of skills and counselling techniques to assist individual employees, teams, and organisations. This makes it essential to constantly improve professional expertise in relation to local needs – which in turn is beneficial in establishing EAP’s legitimacy in providing relevant, holistic assistance to their clients.
Indigenous healing systems in culturally competent counselling
Spirituality and/or religious beliefs are critical components to the well-being and holistic health of many peoples. It is crucial that EAP counsellors have understanding and are prepared for clients who come for counselling having spiritual and religious concerns that impact their holistic wellbeing. To this end, in the South African context, EAP counsellors are recognising the benefits that indigenous healing systems have on both physical and mental health – across a broad range of belief systems. For example, for the employee whose physical and mental ailments are culturally and spiritually rooted in the deep need for ancestral connection, as well as for the employee whose spiritual or religious beliefs are their bedrock of resilience or healing.
Developing cross-cultural competence is a lifelong journey
The ongoing process of becoming culturally competent would be enhanced if counsellors understood this process in the same way as one would acquire professional certification that requires ongoing professional development. In order to be culturally competent counsellors must be open-minded and recognise that valuing and respecting cultural differences requires a commitment to life-long learning.
1https://repository.up.ac.za/bitstream/handle/2263/27286/00dissertation.pdf?sequence=1
2https://www.counseling.org/resources/library/ACA%20Digests/ACAPCD-24.pdf
There is need to understand the law of Cause and Effect in order to deal with causes not effects in fields like counseling. What determines culture in order to understand the essence of cultural diversity? What determines individual world views? What determines human attitude, behavour, habit, and lifestyle at individual level and in turn traditions, customs and Cultures at group levels? It’s only when we sincerely answer these questions that we can begin to solve the challenges of Multcultural counseling. Like the Doctor who understand the patient in a transcultural framework that is applicable to every human being, the counsellor needs to have a similar frame work which can be used despite the culture of the client since culture is an EFFECT not a CAUSE. My view is that if we will want the counsellor to have knowledge of every culture they are in order to be competent counsellors it is like telling a doctor to learn different signs and symptoms for the same disease just because he is in a different culture.
Social sciences with its premise upon the definition of health by the WHO as “complete physical, mental, and social well-being”, has developed Biopsychosocial incomplete frame work. Human beings are fundamentally made of Spirit, body, and Mind (SBM) giving a Biopsychospiritual framework. Like chemicals human beings react with these elements in their interactions that give the social aspect an effect while the cause is the SBM. Social well-being depends on the wellbeing of SBM. What counselors need to know – like other professionals do is a clear understanding of the SBM – the human being they work with and what the SBM truly is how the SBMs interact. Engineers know and work with metals, Chemists know and work with chemicals and Counsellors must know and work with humans not cultures. Their basic Healthlife Management sciences should lead to applied Humanology just as basic physical sciences leads to technology. MUNA Healthlife Managements Institute is a Swaziland registered tertiary institution that trains Healthlife Management Counsellors to be leading Humanologists. For more information contact Dr Muyabala Muna +268 7603 8835 or Muyabalamuna@gmail.com.
My Response in Reading: EAPA SA. (2019). Article: Culturally Sensitive and Holistic EAP Approaches in South Africa. By Ms Thobile Masebula of MUNA Healthlife Institute, Department of Healthlife Management Sciences: Email: thobilem36@gmail,com
Two issues to discuss in response to the ideas shared in this paper on the issue of strengthening a cultural sensitive and holistic EAP approach in South Africa. The discussion on these issues seeks to bring into light the level of acceptance regarding the indigenous western psychology by non-western cultures and the increasing complexities of human problems despite attempts to control them since over the past decades. Both matters have mostly played an important role in devising response approaches challenges faced by humanity around the world and their absence in this discussion is a grave mistake.
The idea that there is need for multicultural and diversity inclusion in the practice of counselling (an approach deemed to be effective in the therapeutic relationship and counselling process) cannot be disputed. However, focusing only the historical and social context as influencers on individuals’ attitude, behaviour, values and lifestyle, as emphasized in the paper being discussed, is somehow restrictive to the broad understanding on the cause of human problems to determine the development of relevant approaches and/or services designed in addressing them . As much as it is true that the South African history had a major impact in the lives of the black people through acts of discrimination and prejudice inflicted to them by the whites (Makau, 2003), we should also take note of the fact that there are more cases of black population venting anger on each other today. Now, if we believe that the black population still harbour negative attitude towards the white population because of the past bad experiences under their rule, we should instead be hearing more in the news of gruesome killings of the whites today rather than the blacks against each other. The truth of the matter is that there is so much anger, frustration and confusion leading to development of hatred and lack of love for each other among the heterogeneous black population in South Africa. In fact, there is so much wickedness in the world we live in and people have lost the true essence of human nature, that is, compassion, love and care for each other, that is why they behave this way against each other. Somehow, some people behave the way they do because they are influenced by wicked forces (spirits) other than the Spirit of God who can teach them how to love each other. Hence, the Bible Based Belief system in the book of Mathew 24: 12 prophesied on the increasing lack of conscience among people leading to the diminishing of love for each other, which is exactly what we see or experience today.
Therefore, if the same race cannot treat and accept each other fairly, we cannot fully guarantee that a foreign concept (psychology) and its approaches to addressing mental health problems among other cultures around the world be accepted without encountering some form of resistance from locals. Justice has not been done to give room for local constructs in the understanding of mental health problems and cultural variation of coping and resilience. There is still a great challenge when attempting to domesticate some of the ideas and techniques in applied psychology recommended in the treatment of mental health problems for local groups. Hence, it is imperative that we also take into account the origin of the psychology as a discipline and its approach to understanding and responding to mental health problems among individuals around the world. These are important factors which when critically reviewed can help in judging on whether attempts made to improve in our approach to addressing mental health problems in individuals from diverse and multicultural backgrounds will be effective, than just coming up with options that can only take us half way.
Psychology (as we know it) is really “the indigenous psychology” of white, Caucasian males in much industrialised nations and has typically ignored or excluded ethnic minorities (Owusu Bempah & Howitt, 2000). This has caused many challenges today in an effort to be inclusive of other indigenous psychologies from other ethnic and cultural groups. Other nations have their own conceptualization and methods of treating or coping with mental health problems in individuals (Bhugra, & Osborne, 2006). This is to say, they normally do not apply the western methods in psychology to treating mental disorders but rely for instance, in the development of new constructs by local population and their use of religious or spirituality elements, which from their experiences bring forth positive outcomes. One thing to note here is that, a growing number of researches today have proved that integrating spirituality in psychotherapy has proved to be more effective to even patients suffering from psychiatric problems (Hefti, 2011). However, there is an emergent argument in the validity and acceptance of this approach in clinical practice as part of treatment for the benefit of those suffering from mental health illness. Even though the spirituality has been ignored in the cultural competent counselling, Lee (2008) argued that it has indeed grown to become one of the major components in the holistic approach to the health and well-being of many individuals today. Interestingly, it is worth mentioning that spirituality is often inseparable from one’s cultural identity hence cannot be ignored at all cost.
Emphasizing on encouraging counsellors to be cognizant of socio-anthropological issues during the cultural history taking in cross-cultural context is not enough in addressing matters of historical prejudices and racial discriminations that has led to psychological disturbances among the affected. The issue is not just the attitude against white people because of historical prejudice in South Africa but a lot is at stake here. Actually, it leaves a lot to be desired, as the method applied (originally referenced from the western indigenous psychology) is more likely to receive less corporation or resistance from non-western cultures. Historically, when it comes to culture and diversity in psychology, individual differences has been widely ignored. With regard to pathologisation, (construction of culture and diversity as a problem which supports superiority of dominant ideology) generalisations were often made on basis of a white, middle-class sample as from way back. And as such, diverse and multicultural groups pathologised and represented as ‘deviant’ or ‘deprived’ because of misunderstanding of cultural values and ignorance of social context (e.g. poverty). In order to repair what has already been distorted, suggestions would be that each culture be allowed to develop own psychology, something which overemphasizing on differences, then a new type of ethnocentrism may exist. And these groups can also meet from time to time to share experiences and concur on the more efficient and effective approaches to solving mental health problems of individual at both multicultural and diversity level. In short, for purposes of overemphasizing differences, there is need to incorporate other indigenous psychologies and proven scientifically in the broad spectrum. To summarise this, it is worth mentioning that local approaches are more likely to provide results that fit other local instances in particular societies.
The originality of human problems and its relevance to modern practices in addressing them is one of the most controversial topics in science. In his book, “Spiritual Health: What you need to know and be to enjoy abundant life”, Muna (2016), stressed that the cause of all human problems in the world we are living in today should be traced back to the origin of human problems. The author referred from the Bible in the book of Genesis 3, to highlight that due to mankind adopting a false belief system handed to them in a deceptive way by the Devil; it gave way to most of the problems and challenges we face today. He further mentions that what we see today is the effect (i.e. violence, greed, abuse, poverty, sicknesses etc.) of the cause (sin rooted in the belief system of the Deceiver). We cannot dispute the existence of God, given what we see today and scientist can attest to that. Moreover, a number of researches today have proven the relevance of the Bible Based Belief System in what is happening in our world today. Science does not believe in the existence of God and refuse to connect the existence of human problems to this as outcomes of rebelling against God. As a result we were made to believe that humanity need not to rely on God to solve their problems but should depend on realism and an open-ended process for providing answers to human problems (Pathak, 2009). However, what we have observed is that mankind has from time and time again came up with contradicting theories in explaining life and causing so much confusion in an attempt to solve human problems. The world approach to solving human problems only targets the effects and shying away from dealing with the cause. In addition, according to Muna (2016) continuing in this manner cannot bring about long lasting solutions to human problems. Sadly, we still do not want to admit that no matter how much effort we make and so much money spent in devising approaches to solving human problems, we are far from the truth. It is high time we do not shy away from the truth and accept the fact that the only solution to the world’s problems affecting humanity is acknowledging God as Lord (as we all came from Him and he knows how to fix our problems without any hassle). Moreover, learn to accept His Spirit to take charge in guiding us on what we need to know and do to live a happy and abundant life away from sickness, violence, poverty and all wickedness.
In summary, this is to say we can try all we can to take charge by bringing in new theories, ideas etc. that will (as assumed) make some improvements in our current situations that seems to be getting out of hand. However, if we still chasing after the effects rather than the causes of humanity problems we are far from being a happy people in a happy world. We cannot fool ourselves by thinking that new ideas we have today will change anything from what it has been in the past. A number of intellectuals in the past from fields of sociology, psychology, anthropology etc. have introduced ideas, philosophies in attempting to understand human nature but most of them did not stand the test of time when it comes to effectively solving the complexities of human problems. It is high time we admit our failures and stop deceiving ourselves to death. Substantial research emphasized on the need to be mindful of multi-culture and diversity when working with our clients using a approaches that were designed from other cultures instead of allowing the local cultures to introduce their own way of coping with human problems. This is something to think about on these matters.
References
Bhugra, D., & Osborne, T. (2006). Cultural assessment and management. Psychiatry, 5(11), 379-382.
Hefti, R., (2011). Integrating Religion and Spirituality into Mental Health Care, Psychiatry and Psychotherapy. Religion. Department of Psychosomatic Medicine, Clinic SGM Langenthal and Research Institute for Spirituality and Health / Weissensteinstrasse 30, CH-4900 Langenthal, Switzerland.
Lee, C. C. (2008). Elements of culturally competent counseling (ACAPCD-24). Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association.
Makau, K., M., (2003). Counselling across cultures: experiences of intern clinical
Psychologists. Thesis. University of Pretoria.
Muyabala O. Munachitombwe-Muna. (2016). Spiritual Health: What you need to know and be to enjoy abundant life. MUNA Healthlife Consultancy (Pty) Ltd.
Owusu-Bempah & Howitt (2000). Psychology Beyond Western Perspectives.
Pathak, S., (2009). Human Consciousness & Values for Solving Global Problem. Retrieved 01 March 2019 from http://existentialharmony.org.