Research on Cross-Cultural Counselling and Psychotherapy: Implications for the South African Context

Training programmes in cross-cultural competencies have focused on the three interrelated areas of knowledge, awareness and skills. Cross-cultural theorists have found that many Third World clients experience the values of counselling to be inconsistent with their life experiences. Owing to the influence of western variables which operate as potential sources of conflict such clients also often view therapy as an unknown, mystifying process. A major implication of the article is that because of the mismatch between western psychology theory and a Third World environment, the theory and practice of psychology in South Africa may be said to reflect the therapist's encapsulation and lack of cross-cultural competencies. Such competencies are of significance for facilitating a meaningful therapeutic encounter and for the subsequent delivery of relevant psychological services.