Group counseling in a different cultural context: Several primary issues in dealing with Chinese clients

Abstract

To apply group therapy or counseling, a branch of helping methodology rooted in modern Western psychology, to a culturally different context, such as the Chinese cultural environment, group counselors need to increase their awareness, knowledge, and skills that are compatible with the group climate they encounter. A group counselor needs to understand the general characteristics of the culture. The counselor should use his or her leadership quality to deal appropriately with group clients' psychological dynamics, which bear unique cultural preferences with respect to thinking, feeling, and doing. While many group counseling communication skills from a Western theoretical framework can be helpful and applicable to the Chinese group clientele, some of these skills need to be contextually modified. The counseling goal is to properly integrate Chinese cultural and therapeutic norms into the group process.