Exploring Social and Cultural Factors in the Counseling Process

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of how social and cultural elements affect the counseling process. It explores the significance of understanding social factors, including age, gender, religious backgrounds, and ethnicity, to ensure effective counseling. The paper emphasizes the importance of intercultural counseling, highlighting that successful outcomes depend on effective communication between clients and counselors. It addresses the potential for misunderstandings if counselors fail to analyze these factors adequately. The report reviews literature on various social and cultural elements impacting counseling, such as gender sensitivity, religious beliefs, and the influence of age and stigma. It discusses barriers to effective service delivery and the need for counselors to consider clients' social and cultural contexts. The conclusion underscores the necessity for counselors to be aware of these elements to enhance treatment adherence and recovery.

Running head: SOCIAL AND CULTURAL ELEMENTS IN COUNSELLING 1
Social and Cultural Elements in Counselling
Name
Institution

SOCIAL AND CULTURAL ELEMENTS IN COUNSELLING 2
SOCIAL AND CULTURAL ELEMENTS IN COUNSELLING
Abstract
This paper will discuss how different social and cultural elements affect the counseling
process. For successful counseling, a counselor must understand the social factors surrounding
the interaction. On the other hand, intercultural counseling is a collaborative procedures and its
success is determined by the communication that exists between the clients and the counselor. If
the social and cultural factors are not well analyzed by the counselor, it may lead to
misunderstanding. Some factors that will be analyzed include age, gender, religious
backgrounds, and ethnicity. Each factor will be analyzed and how it affects the counseling
services.

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Introduction
Social and cultural elements have become major forces behind the counseling profession.
It is evident that most counselors must be more competent with issues regarding diversity and
multiculturalism. The ever-changing population and migration has led to many social and
cultural issues which have affected people mentally and even physically. There are many social
and cultural factors such as family, religion, socio-economic status, stigma, and poverty that
counselors’ should be conversant with in their counseling profession. On the other hand, the
counselors’ should look for the best practice approaches in their field to break the social-cultural
barrier that may hinder effective delivery of services.
Research question
1. How do social and cultural factors affect the counseling process and service delivery?
Statement of the problem
The current counseling system in the United States and other countries globally do not
incorporate the social and cultural elements in their service delivery. The counselors do not
analyze the social and cultural factors of their clients before starting their counseling session.
Most of the counselors are money oriented and they end up doing more harm than good to the
clients. There have been barriers because of social and cultural elements such as family, age
religion, and poverty that have hindered effective service delivery. Therefore, it is important for
counselors to consider the client’s social and cultural elements that may have led to the presented
issue.

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Literature review
This article discusses culture and anti-discriminatory approach in counseling. There are
around 1.57 billion Muslims in the whole globe and there approximately 940,000 residing in
Canada. More so, the Muslim population in Canada is expected to grow by approximately 2.7
million by 2030. Although there is a high rate in the number of the Muslim population,
intercultural differences still exist. Therefore, according to Qasqas and Jerry (2014),
understanding the global and intercultural differences of Muslims is important if counselors and
psychologist are planning to practice their professions without discrimination and in a culturally
competent manner, especially because of the increased awareness of the psychological need of
the Muslims society followed by the attacks. For the counselors and psychologists to be able to
challenge the biases and stereotypes that exist in their own minds, they may engage in unethical
discriminatory and prejudice practices without knowing (Portera, 2014). Therefore, counseling in
such an environment should be done in an ethical manner because they will be handling a
population that is not dominant. The counselors should also explore the main sources of
discrimination before engaging in counseling services. The counselors should understand the
Muslim woman culture especially those wearing hijabs before starting any counseling session.
This article explains the contraceptive counseling and care of female adolescents.
According to Bitzer, et al., (2016), there have been barriers that have hindered effective
counseling and care of adolescents searching for advice about contraception and sexual
reproductive health. The counselors should identify the elements and best practices to use in
giving counseling to adolescents compared to old adults. The research was carried out on
professionals with a clinical expert on the provision of contraceptives adolescents. The results
showed that there were barriers that hindered the effective access, acceptance and availability of

SOCIAL AND CULTURAL ELEMENTS IN COUNSELLING 5
contraception by the adolescents. The barriers included social-cultural issues, political, and best
practice in the health care facilities. According to the authors, the counselors should be educated
on the best practices that will help in delivering contraceptive services to adolescents in order to
overcome barriers to effective counseling and care of adolescents.
Joshi, (2015) explores the importance of gender sensitivity intervention in India.
According to this article, gender is a significant determinist of mental distress and health. Gender
has an influence on the roles played by women and men, the stress they experience, and their
access to resources and how they engage in decision making. Gender also affects demonstrations
and results of psychological distress and the type of counseling services needed. However, in
India, most counseling services do not put into consideration gender issued (Brown, Collins &
Arthur, 2014). Therefore, in India, gender issues barely find expression in the mainstream
counseling community in the Indian context. This leads to a lack of acceptance of the effect of
gendered socialization on a person’s interpersonal and psychological functioning and their
power, privilege, and status in the given social, cultural, and political system. More so, it results
in the maintenance of traditional gender messages and differentials of power. Given the nature of
Indian society and the norms that govern gender prescribed the Indian culture, there is great
importance to incorporate gender discourse within the existing counseling services in India.
Leighton, (2014) carried research to investigate how diverse religious backgrounds may
impact counseling services. Much mental counseling has not been putting into consideration the
religious practices and beliefs of clients. According to this article, knowing a person’s religious
beliefs are important and it is one of the psychological principles. There are clients who have
misconceptions about their presented case may be hard for a counselor to administer services to
such a client. Therefore, a counselor should explore the religious background of the client first

SOCIAL AND CULTURAL ELEMENTS IN COUNSELLING 6
before making any further decisions. This information will assist the counselor in developing a
therapeutic alliance in the first phase of therapy through the integration of faith values.
Boyd, (2019) in his article explains age as a social element in counseling. Age may
influence the kind of counseling that a person receives. Example, the type of counseling that an
old adult receive is different compared to what a young adult receives (Watsford & Rickwood,
2014). Old adults have different problems that they face such as financial problems because most
of them have retired and may not be able to work. In addition, they are affected by health care
problems, anxiety, and depression. Therefore, a counselor should identify such issues in clients
and be ready to deal with problems that can come up as a result of such issues.
Stigma is one of the social problems which have influenced treatment, recovery, and
help-seeking. Problem gambling leads to the considerable public stigma which in turn leas to
self-stigma on the victim. A research was carried out to investigate the role of stigma during
treatment and recovery from problem gambling (Hing, et al., 2016). The study was focused on
examining gambling counselors’ respective ideas on how and whether the stigma that is reacted
with problem gambling influences the issue of acknowledgment, seeking help, treatment, and
recovery. And a detailed interview was carried out between nine counselors from Australia and
Victoria. The finds showed that the problem of gambling is increases due to the stigma addition
and its impacts. The stigma is developed by the public and maintained since the public lack an
understanding of problem gambling and its roots (Guo, et al., 2016. Therefore, it leads to self-
stigmatizing beliefs on the client hence delayed help-seeking, concerns about the attitude of the
counselor, anxiety about seeking treatment, and fear of relapse. The counselor commented that
before effective gambling treatment happened, they had to assist clients to do away with self-
stigmatization beliefs in order to establish trust and confidence in the counselor, restore self-

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esteem, and foster stigma coping skills. Therefore, stigma should be addressed early to enhance
treatment adherence and recovery
Conclusion
After reviewing several articles concerning social and cultural elements in counseling, it
is evident that are many social and cultural factors being the unsuccessful counseling services.
The counselors have been reluctant to identify the root behind several cases ad they have limited
their services on the current state. Some of the social-cultural factors that counselors should look
into include family background, religion, ethnic background, gender, and age. Another social
factor that has affected effective counseling is a stigma. This has hinder help-seeking, treatment,
and recovery on clients. Therefore, stigma should be addressed early to enhance treatment
adherence and recovery

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References
.Bitzer, J., Abalos, V., Apter, D., Martin, R., Black, A., & Global CARE (Contraception: Access,
Resources, Education) Group. (2016). targeting factors for change: contraceptive
counselling and care of female adolescents. The European Journal of Contraception &
Reproductive Health Care, 21(6), 417-430.
Boyd, N. (2019). Counseling Aged Populations - Video & Lesson Transcript | Study.com.
Retrieved from https://study.com/academy/lesson/counseling-aged-populations.html
Brown, C. B., Collins, S., & Arthur, N. (2014). Fostering multicultural and social justice
competence through counsellor education pedagogy. Canadian Journal of Counselling
and Psychotherapy/Revue canadienne de counseling et de psychothérapie, 48(3).
Guo, S., Manning, V., Thane, K. K. W., Ng, A., Abdin, E., & Wong, K. E. (2014). Predictors of
treatment outcome among Asian pathological gamblers (PGs): clinical, behavioural,
demographic, and treatment process factors. Journal of gambling studies, 30(1), 89-103.
Hing, N., Nuske, E., Gainsbury, S. M., Russell, A. M., & Breen, H. (2016). How does the stigma
of problem gambling influence help-seeking, treatment and recovery? A view from the
counselling sector. International Gambling Studies, 16(2), 263-280.
Joshi, A. (2015). Need for gender sensitive counselling interventions in India. Psychological
Studies, 60(3), 346-355.
Leighton, T. J. (2014). The therapeutics of counselling religious clients: Intake and
assessment. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 12(3), 295-311.

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Portera, A. (2014). Intercultural competence in education, counselling and
psychotherapy. Intercultural Education, 25(2), 157-174.
Qasqas, M. J., & Jerry, P. (2014). Counselling Muslims: A culture-infused antidiscriminatory
approach. Canadian Journal of Counselling and Psychotherapy/Revue canadienne de
counseling et de psychothérapie, 48(1).
Watsford, C., & Rickwood, D. (2014). Young people's expectations, preferences, and
experiences of therapy: Effects on clinical outcome, service use, and help‐seeking
intentions. Clinical Psychologist, 18(1), 43-51.