Multicultural Encounters Case Narratives from a Counseling Practice pot

[...]... individual stories and cultural generalizations are avoided Showing the actual circumstances and detailed history of individuals and their relationships suggests that such particulars are always present and crucial to the experience of any individual Such narratives 6 Multicultural Encounters depict both human similarity and variability within groups and across groups as well as previously unarticulated experiences... world acts on them as well (Ivey et al., 1997) We could also envision a “tactical humanism” in which we are liberated by a sense of infinite possibility that is balanced with an awareness of cultural limitations (Abu-Lughod, 1991) An integrative approach attempts a harmony of alternative, indigenous, and mainstream therapeutic traditions, modified by a consciousness of the centrality of culture and a philosophical... locals refer to as “the kids left by the bases.” In Okinawa thousands of mixed-ancestry Amerasian offspring live around the sprawling military bases, negotiating the complex political and racial dynamics of their communities One day I received a phone call from a young man He had heard that I was a counselor, he said, and wondered if I would see him Since I still had to arrange for office space, we agreed... rejection of all attempts to posit essentials and universals can be extreme in its nihilism when declaring that nothing is real and nothing is authentic Emphasis on the story can become a denial of experience, and an overemphasis on spoken words is inappropriate for individuals from certain cultural backgrounds Assertions that reality is constructed can lead to denial that there are also essential facts of... culture in assessment and therapy The attempts of academics and clinicians to dismiss culture and discover universal knowledge about human psychology have been discredited (Mio & Awakuni, 1999) Psychology can no longer pretend to be neutral and anything more than a way of knowing practiced in certain places at a particular point in history (Sampson, 1993) There is a growing acceptance of the cultural assumptions... sensitively relating to that which is most salient to the person at that moment (Ivey, 1995) Mainstream and Alternative The counseling presented in this book integrates various traditions and schools of psychotherapy, both mainstream and alternative Training in traditional East Asian medicine preceded my socialization as a psychologist and informs my understanding of illness and healing This training, with... as a typical military man who didn’t show his feelings, and seemed most comfortable when he was drinking with his buddies He was jealous of the attention she gave to Hideo, and they argued about that “I told him it was just the Japanese way, but he said Hideo is American, so we should raise him like an American boy Actually his name was Gregory at the time; I changed it when he got Japanese nationality.”... borderlands This approach celebrates the unity to be found in a diversity of individual narratives rather than searching for grand unifying narratives in a system of similarities (Hayes, 1994) AN INTEGRATIVE MULTICULTURAL COUNSELING FRAMEWORK Counseling and therapy’s effectiveness is enhanced when the counselor uses techniques, strategies, and goals consistent with the life experiences and cultural values... with an awareness of the artistic nature of counseling and the mystical nature of our spiritual connections Prologue 11 COUNSELING AS ART AND NARRATIVE Indeed, the capacity to tolerate uncertainty is a prerequisite for the profession Though the public may believe that therapists guide patients systematically and sure-handedly through predictable stages of therapy to a foreknown goal, such is rarely... discrimination as well as general cultural characteristics and recommendations for assessment, counseling, and therapy when working with a member of the group More reductionist writing ignores social factors and paints a description of minorities as having exotic, culture-bound disorders and a set of cultural traits ETHNIC NARRATIVES In these circumstances, the idea that there is a fixed, invariant, and . class="bi x0 y0 w0 h0" alt="" Multicultural Encounters Case Narratives from a Counseling Practice Stephen Murphy-Shigematsu Teachers College, Columbia. Stephen Multicultural encounters : case narratives from a counseling practice / Stephen Murphy-Shigematsu. p. cm. — (Multicultural foundations of psychology and counseling) Includes