Effective Cross-Cultural Counseling and Psychotherapy :A Framework

Abstract

This article presents strategies to enhance effectiveness in cross-cultural counseling and psychotherapy encounters. A major assumption is that a coherent orientation is needed that includes cultural differences yet transcends these differences and organizes the human experience in the context of individual world views within the framework of existential philosophy. An understanding of one's own world view and the client's world view are key elements in enhancing cross-cultural effectiveness. Other strategies that can enhance cross-cultural counseling and psychotherapy include a discussion on the knowledge of semantic structures of reasoning and an understanding of culture-its premises and its relationship to effectiveness in cross-cultural counseling and psychotherapy.