Teaching Clinicians about Ethnic Cultures

Clinicians are increasingly aware that a single technique for individual or family counseling is inappropriate in an ethnically complex society. All clients in counseling seek relief for their distress, but, as Mayo (1991:318) has pointed out, "The paths to that goal are many." Consequently, several works clarify the characteristics of different social and cultural groups, particularly with reference to their acceptance of professional counseling and the most effective techniques. At best, such works, and courses based on them, provide summaries of a broad spectrum of ethnic cultures. For example, one work on ethnic families covers 19 cultures, another 17 (McGoldrick, et al. 1982; Mindel, et al. 1988). While this is a valuable broadening of therapeutic technique, experience in clinical work as well as in teaching clinical method illustrates its insufficiency. Any compendium must be limited to a description of the modal pattern in the best-known communities; for several reasons it has limited value as a guide for a specific client. Some clients may come from groups which are relatively new on the American scene. Among Asians alone such relatively new and unknown groups as the Hmong, Laotians, or Kampucheans are unlikely to appear in materials readily available to clinicians (Baca Zinn & Eitzen 1993:162). For such cases, the standard description of common ethnic cultures will miss the mark. Even for the most commonly known minorities, recent arrivals may not resemble their 271 272 CLINICAL SOCIOLOGY REVIEW/1994 predecessors: they may be more educated, of urban rather than rural backgrounds, or of different income levels than their predecessors (Baca Zinn & Eitzen 1993: 161). Furthermore, recent arrivals, by definition, have experienced an altered version of the home culture than their predecessors (Sengstock 1982). Hence a clinician cannot consider existing analyses of ethnic communities to be descriptive of newer populations from the same areas. Finally, even with widely studied ethnic communities, knowledge of the modal type may prove inadequate for dealing with an individual client. Numerous members of any group do not follow the most frequent pattern. Billingsley (1968), for example, identified 12 different family patterns within the Black community, and several families which did not fit any of these. Such deviant types may lack social support and be disproportionately likely to appear in a clinician's office. It follows that a description of a variety of ethnic patterns is necessary but not sufficient preparation. Training must also acquaint clinicians with the dimensions of …