What Is Worldview In Counseling

Introduction As helping professionals in the United States, it is near impossible that are caseload will be filled with people who are culturally identical to ourselves. An intense examination on the way we look at the world and how it affects our assessment and assumptions of others, especially those different from ourselves, is imperative to provide competent counseling services. Whaley (2001) stated, “clinicians must be open to learning from their clients, and they must be nonjudgmental about the clients' cultural perspective, including their level of cultural mistrust,” (p. 560). This discussion brought me to reflect on a current case that I have with a young, African American male that illustrates this situation perfectly. He was admitted
If a counselor is of a dominant group, and holds ethnocentric views, and practices from that worldview, they would not have the capacity to consider multicultural issues. In the example I provided in the introduction, if the White counselor had a worldview of ethnic superiority, he/she would place importance in certain values. Highland and Jones (as cited in Sue & Sue, 2016) stated that, “the theories of counseling and psychotherapy, the standards used to judge normality-abnormality, and the actual process of mental health practice are culture bound and reflect a monocultural perspective of helping professionals,” (p. 151). Working from these expectations, this counselor may risk misdiagnosing this client by not being sensitive to cultural
Devine et Al. (as cited in Aklin & Turner, 2006), stated, “specific stereotypes held about African American and Hispanic patients are that they are violent, hostile, and unmotivated for treatment,” (p.57). Aklin and Turner went on to state that, “These perceptions tend to influence the diagnostic decision-making process, sometimes leading the clinician to construct a flawed picture of the patient despite evidence that suggests otherwise. The latter is often referred to as confirmatory bias,” (p. 57). It is possible that the initial assumptions made by the counselor in this case, in combination with the client’s past criminal history, led to a deteriorated helping relationship and