Diversity And Diversity In Counselling

Diversity and a counselling relationship Culture and diversity is all around us, its part of everyday life. The person we become as we grow up is impacted on by our own cultural backgrounds and beliefs according to the Counselling directory (2013) “In counselling as in everyday life, culture is the main difference between people, as in religion, race, age, class, sexual orientation, disability and gender. The cultural divisions within society and our cultural heritage impact upon the family and society as a whole i.e. where we come from, origin, religion, how we live, where we live and how we speak. This also relates within single parent, polygamous, same sex or monogamous family situations.”

It’s only natural therefore that our own cultural beliefs and the cultural beliefs of the client would impact upon a counselling

Our belief systems are often ingrained into our being from childhood often so much so we are not actually aware of our own thought processes according to O’Farrell (2014) “seeking to understand how we are likely to react in given situations and to different people, and learning what triggers our emotional responses gives us the opportunity to see what is preventing us from achieving our ideal selves”

O’Farrell believes for the counsellor learning about themselves and what triggers there emotional responses is an ongoing process but an important one none the less she believes that we as the counsellor along with the client need to be open to change otherwise we will become frozen in a single perspective. Ongoing training can be a means through a counsellor can achieve this. As a counsellor it is important not to judge others values or approve or disapprove whether they are different to our values or not. O’Farrell (2014) uses the term “recognise the validity” which involves neither rejection nor acceptance merely recognition on the