NCJ Number
181851
Date Published
1999
Length
22 pages
Annotation
This article attempts to raise awareness about multicultural counseling with non-Hispanic white boys.
Abstract
The article discusses salient cultural issues to consider when counseling boys with the following cultural backgrounds: WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant), Irish Catholic, Italian and Jewish. WASP boys tend to prefer to solve problems on their own. When referred for counseling, they initially prefer individual or family counseling in which immediate family members participate. WASPS prefer counselors who maintain confidentiality, take a psychoeducational approach to counseling, have scheduled appointment times and set time limits for counseling sessions. Although reluctant to seek counseling, Irish Catholic boys tend to respond well to behavioral and solution-focused approaches that involve making changes in behavior rather than psychodrama or gestalt approaches, which emphasize high emotional expression, or psychoanalytical approaches, which overemphasize humans’ pathological characteristics. A family systems approach to counseling, using both immediate and extended family members, is recommended with Italian American boys. Expressing warmth and hospitality, accepting and sharing food during counseling sessions, and having flexible time limits during counseling sessions tend to enhance the therapeutic process with Italian American clients. Because the Jewish culture emphasizes the family and introspection, intellectual exchange, and the discussion of issues, many Jews respond well to family therapy, insight-oriented psychotherapy and bibliotherapy. Orthodox Jewish families tend to prefer counselors who are also Jewish. Disagreement between parents and sons regarding traditional versus nontraditional values can result in intense conflicts in Jewish American families and require family systems counseling.