Globalization and Counseling: Professional Issues for Counselors

Abstract

Scholars have examined globalization for many years in terms of its impact on individuals, but it remains a concept not often discussed in the counseling literature (Paredes et al., 2008). As counseling transforms from a Western-based practice to a global phenomenon, it is important to understand counseling within an international context. In this article, the ways in which the process of globalization are currently impacting the field of counseling, implications and future research directions are examined.As our world becomes increasingly connected economically, politically, technologically, and culturally, counseling is transforming from a Western-based practice to a global phenomenon. The globalization of counseling has placed the field on the cusp of growth and innovation. Such changes involve not only a willingness to adapt and perhaps redefine current counseling theories, but to hold our most basic assumptions regarding the nature of human change so loosely that we are willing to let counseling develop and evolve indigenously in international communities. Accordingly, this article highlights the impact of globalization on the field of counseling, with particular attention given to the spread of Westernbased counseling practices to the international community. In order to do so, we begin by defining globalization and considering the progression of multicultural counseling towards a more global vision. We then examine the ways in which the process of globalization is currently impacting the field of counseling. Lastly, the implications for counseling as an increasingly global phenomenon and future research directions are considered.GlobalizationGlobalization can be referred to the McDondaldization or Westernization of the world. These terms imply that globalism entails an invasion of Western capitalism into undeveloped nations and suggests the idea that the world is becoming homogeneous. Modern scholars of globalization (Featherstone, 1996; Tomlinson, 1999), however, point out that such oversimplifications only describe one aspect of globalism, and note that globalization is better defined by a series of interactions between nations than by a unidirectional Western conquest. Accordingly, we define globalization in this article as a continual process of interaction and integration among national economies, societies and cultures (Rothenberg, 2003).There is a dynamic interplay between both global and local economies, politics, technologies and cultures in which local communities do not passively give way to outside influences, but rather actively react to the process by absorbing, assimilating, and/or resisting the worldviews, products and politics introduced by the West (Featherstone, 1996). This global-local relationship transforms the local lived experiences of the individuals and has increasing global consequences (Tomlinson, 1999).Scholars in the counseling field have already increased their understanding of the process by which individuals in minority groups adapt to dominate cultural norms. Traditionally, it was assumed that acculturation was a one-dimensional process in which individuals demonstrated increasing adherence to the dominate culture and a lessening of adherence to the minority orientation. More recently, scholars understand this process to be multidimensional, involving both acculturation and enculturation (Kim & Abreu, 2001).Similar to modern theories of globalization, counselors are increasingly aware of the dynamic interplay that exists between dominant and individual culture. In this manner, as the counseling profession is introduced and developed in international communities, not only will local communities and individuals living in those communities be transformed, but the practice of traditional, Western counseling may be fundamentally redefined as locals actively react and adapt to the practice. Individual views and experiences of globalization are contingent upon social location and personal experiences (Featherstone 1996; Tomlinson, 1999). …