Examine the issues you would consider when counselling an African client with family

problems

Introduction

The world is changing very fast toward cultural pluralism. It is predicted that most of the
societies will be more diverse in 21st century. Therapy does not happen in a vacuum. Rather, it
happens in social and cultural contexts and encounters. Formal practices of therapy are not in
monopoly of the Western world. In many societies, psychological helps in form of traditional
therapies with its own apparatus or rituals and sequence of operations for providing relief or
facilitating desired change. Therapeutic aims and interventions reflect the regional culture.
Treatment systems must define cultural norms for the client. How a client views the world is
important insofar as it contrasts with the counselor’s. Family counselors and therapists need to
take cognizance of the social and cultural contexts and encounters of the clients. This paper shall
discuss in-depth the issues to consider when conducting family therapy for African clients.

Cultural Factors

Cultural awareness is a special lens that the family therapist uses to view the client's reality as
well as his or her own. Culturally responsive counseling must include an understanding of the
role of family dynamics in mental health and well-being. In recent years, "culture" has occupied
a major position in family therapy. This development transformed the way many therapists think
and work with families. Cultural and related anthropological perspectives have been part of
family therapy since its beginnings. Family as a powerful social institution is the matrix of
cultural identity of its members. Each person's cultural identity comprises multiple forms of
belonging, participation, and identification, including race, ethnicity, gender, religion,
occupation, and social class. Family therapy seems to be suffering an identity crisis. In recent
years, culture turned to occupy a key position in family therapy. Couples learn to identify with
cultural values and biases of their own families throughout their childhood. Family counselors
and therapists as well as all their counterparts need to develop activities and intervention
techniques to counteract these biases (Seltzer, 2003).
In African culture, the institution of marriage is an important cultural heritage. Marriage is a
legally recognized union between a man and woman, in which they are united sexually,
cooperate economically, interact socially, and live together productively, as a unified entity.
There are cultural differences in the patterns of marital and family relationships. For example
American and Japenese families are compared as an example of two industrial, developed
countries. In America, marital relationships are seen as secure when they are based on romance,
verbal intimacy, and sexuality (Siegel, 2016). While in Japan, close marital relationships are
based on mutual accommodation, absence of conflict, and enduring loyalty, not on romance,
verbal intimacy, and sexuality. The African traditional context of marriage is buttressed by the
payment of a bride-price or dowry which forms a basis for the union and family obligations. The
institution of marriage represents the behaviors, norms, expectations, and values, that are
associated with legally, socially, and culturally-recognized marriages between a woman and a
man. It bears a symbolic value and importance.

A successful marriage is not only measured on the basis of fundamental aspects of stability,
longevity, and prosperity, but also on the number of children born in African cultures. Children
are the adornment of a home, an investment for the couple, and the lineage of the family. They
constitute links in the ancestral chain for generations in perpetuity, as a lifeline for the family and
clan, genealogically (Rober, 2014). For most people, getting married and bearing children are
important transitional life events on their ladder to adulthood. Marriage counseling is offered to a
couple intending to marry, or experiencing marital and other psychosocial problems; and it is
commonly practiced at community level in most African countries. Although most people wish
to maintain nuclear family structures, the exigencies of retroviral disease, poverty, and unlimited
numbers of children per family, have all contributed toward the extended family obligations and
these are considerations needed from the .

Spirituality and Religion

A protective factor for many people of African descent is their connection between spirituality
and psychological well-being. Research has shown that people of African descent are able to
regulate and resolve distress through the practice of their spirituality or religious beliefs.
Counselors should inquire about and create intervention opportunities that infuse these religious
or spiritual norms. This approach will help to develop and maintain therapeutic alliance and
efficacious therapeutic outcomes.

Economic conditions

Economic status refers to one's financial status and is strongly related to health and educational
status. So in general, most people with a low economic status (e.g. a low income) are also likely
to have a lower educational and health status. On the other hand, those with a higher
economic/financial status will have better access to education and health services and will have
higher status in these areas. It is important to take into account the socio-economic status of a
woman, couple or family because this status will affect the decisions they have to make as well
as the needs they have (Kissil, 2013). For example, a family who is poor may not have money to
attend a health facility (either for child care, transport or where they must pay user fees).
Similarly if a woman has a low educational status she may not appreciate the benefits of birth in
a health facility and her low health status may mean she is at higher risk of poor health outcomes
for both her and her baby. Educational status is also related to literacy. Counselor need to know
the literacy level of people that they counsel so that they do not give them complex advice or
instructions in words which are unfamiliar to them, materials that they cannot read, or forms
which they are unable to understand or complete.

Gender roles

Two of the differences between men and women are sex and gender. Sex is the physical,
biological difference between women and men. It refers to whether people are born female or
male. Gender, is not physical like sex. Gender refers to the expectations people have from
someone or a community because they are female or male (McGoldrick, 2005). Gender attitudes
and behaviours are learned and the concept can change over time. Sex is biologically determined
while gender is socially determined in terms of the roles and responsibilities that society or
family assigns to women and men.

Men and women usually accept the roles defined and perpetuated by their community which can
have both advantages and disadvantages for them. There are many factors that influence gender
roles. These include: age, culture, marital status, education, economics, profession, and the
country or society itself. Understanding the gender roles in the community can help the
counsellor to better understand the situation of the women and men they counsel, and thus
improve counselling interactions.

Many women in Africa find the gender role of wife, mother and housekeeper very satisfying,
providing them with status in the community. However, it can be a disadvantage to other women
who want to have only a few children or want to pursue a career or other interests. Some women
manage to combine a number of different roles. For the family and the community it can be
beneficial for women to look after the children and remain at home, but it could also be a
disadvantage as women who have paid employment could bring other benefits to the family and
community (McGoldrick, 2005).

Gender roles also teach men and women to express themselves differently. Women are often
allowed to be more emotional whereas men are taught to keep their feelings inside. Men may get
less support when they have problems due to expected gender roles. Sometimes it will be
important for counsellors to counsel men and it will be particularly important to take into
account the community's norms for gender roles (Siegel, 2016). For example, a woman may
want her partner or husband to be present when she gives birth but the man may feel pressure
from others in the community or fear the reaction of others in a community where this is not
usual practice like in Africa.

Similarly we can see examples of gender roles in the community. In some communities the
opinions of men may be valued more highly than women's opinions. Women may not be
encouraged to speak or participate in discussions. This means that the community hears more
about what men think about problems and issues. The community or family may not benefit in
this situation as women's knowledge and experience are undervalued or overlooked. Counsellors
may need to be aware of this when they work with communities, in order to support women to
share information, and discuss their knowledge.

The impact of gender roles on health

Gender roles have an impact on beliefs, attitudes and values. Gender roles can also greatly affect
health behaviour and the sexual and reproductive health of men and women in the community.
For example, in some communities adolescents are encouraged to have sex with older men; thus
gender roles can affect the transmission of STIs including HIV/AIDS and can also lead to
unwanted pregnancies (DuPree et al. 2013). Gender roles can lead to other undesirable sexual
behaviours such as women having sex when they do not want to, and even rape and violence
against women. Alternatively gender roles may prohibit women from expressing their own
sexual needs or desires. Gender roles can have an impact on decision-making. For example, in
some societies where there is a female hierarchy, young mothers will not be allowed to take
decisions about seeking care on their own. This may not always be negative. In certain cases,
adolescent girls may want support from older women in taking decisions.

Household decision-making processes

People do not make decisions in isolation from the context of their lives, and this includes asking
advice from other family members and even the wider community. Research has shown that both
the context in which decision-making occurs and the social influences such as those of a partner
or the family, often have more effect on decision-making than merely information and education
or the provision of communication materials.

Counsellors may need to facilitate the decision-making process among all those in the household
who have important contributions to make. Cultural practices and gender roles often heavily
influence the decision-making process. A woman may be unwilling to commit to a plan of action
or take a decision until she has discussed the issues with her partner or other family members
such as her mother or mother-in-law (Akyil, 2011). Counsellors can support women in these
discussions by reviewing the advantages and disadvantages of different options and women
needs in such situation. Some gender roles are influenced by religious beliefs while other gender
roles are based on traditions or culture. Social norms and gender roles can lead to women not
valuing their own bodies, or not understanding how their bodies work. This means they do not
know what to expect or what is “normal”. Sometimes gender roles can lead to women paying
more attention to the sexual needs and desires of men than to their own needs. This can lead to
unwanted sex or having sex by force or to women not using contraceptives because of pressure
from men. Other reproductive health problems may arise such as STIs.

In conclusion the broad and inclusive understanding of counselling families is that there are
various factors that define a people’s culture. The culture of people in any society is partly
determined by their belief and value systems, which, in turn, influence the pattern of their social
behaviors and actions. The collective belief system is part of human culture, and beliefs are ideas
that constitute an essential element in predicting the social behaviors of people. All these
contextual factors are cardinal in understanding the theory and practice of counseling from an
African perspective.
References

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