1CULTURAL COMPETENCY IN COUNSELLINGCase Study: MariaMaria, a 40-year old Italian woman suffers from depression due to the complications thatarose in her relationship with her partner Gill. Maria has been in a 20 years long relationshipwith Gill, her lesbian partner but now she is in a dilemma whether to continue the relationship ornot. As per the case, the main reason for this situation is Maria’s inability to confront her familyregarding her relationship and most importantly her sexual orientation. Hailing from the ItalianCatholic background, Maria sees herself as defective due to her sexual orientation. She feelsashamed that she is lesbian because her Catholicism describes same-sex relationship as sinful. Chui et al. (2018) opine that counselors, just like their clients are diverse in their viewsand opinions about the beliefs and values that concern counseling. To put it simply, clients’values might not always align with the values of the counselor. I have referred to this factbecause I think it is important to know that our clients might not hold the same belief and valuesas we do. In dealing with Maria, I will face the difficulty to understand her Catholic beliefbecause I come from a background where same-sex relationships are neither considered sinfulnor welcomed. One major issue of diversity arising in case of Maria is that she belongs to anItalian Catholic family that is very different from the Australian culture. Furthermore, Maria isclosely attached to her Catholic values and beliefs but at the same time feels helpless about hersexual preferences. As a counselor, I will face the difficulty to make Maria understand that she isnot wrong and that her relationship with Gill is not sinful even in God’s eyes. Sometimes wetend to become judgmental about clients like Maria who are so rigidly involved in followingreligious faith. This leads to cultural incompetency when counselors are unable to help clients tointegrate their sexual orientation into their religion. Boroughs et al. (2015) examined the cases ofsome LGBT clients and found that possessing qualities like self-awareness, a historical

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