How Professionals Overcome Cultural Barriers In Their Practice - Personal experiences shared

As a part of the WICCINPWC community we have always welcomed individuals who have a strong sense of sisterhood and want to make a difference in the mental health space. 

Though there are some amazing aspects to this field there are also some barriers that all of us have or have to tackle in our day to day lives. With this blog we will be highlighting some Cultural Barriers that we have faced individually and how each one of us moved forward that barrier after its identification. 

Dr Gurpreet, Council member who is an Associate Professor at MERI college. She will share her story of how she Overcame the Cultural Barriers in her experience as an educator. 

We all must have, at least once in our life, come across someone with whom we faced the problem of ‘Lack of cultural understanding’! 

I wish to share one such experience of my life. As an educator I get to meet a lot of students coming from diverse cultural backgrounds and often in college we face issues related to cross cultural communication among these students. But one particular case has left a vivid impression on my mind. There was this girl student from a very remote village from Andhra Pradesh who had joined the MBA program in our college. She couldn’t understand Hindi but was able to comprehend English. Due to cultural diversity among students the faculties in the college were using a blend of English and Hindi in their teaching. In the beginning she used to sit in the class without contributing, she would not respond even when professors asked her questions.  Everyone started ignoring her and she was unable to gel up with her classmates or anyone else in the college. Her class representative took notice of this and approached me explaining her problem. I called her and asked her about the issues and problems she was facing but she refrained from saying anything, for some reason I could sense something is not right. But since she was not comfortable that day I asked her to come back to me after a week. I met her classmates during her absence and asked them what they felt about her? 10% of the students were concerned about her but rest 90% had no interest in her and suggested that she should be left to take care of herself on her own; after all she is an adult and doesn’t need special care and attention like school kids. After listening to their viewpoints I asked them a simple question, “If you were to take up a job as an expatriate in a country where English is not the first language, then how do you think you will survive? Especially if your colleagues treat you in the same ignorant way in which you are behaving with her, how would you feel?” with this question left unanswered I left the classroom. Exactly after a week this girl comes back to me and she has a smile on her face and she seemed happy and confident.  She told me that many students from her class have tried to talk to her and some of them help her understand the simple words in Hindi.  Two-three students even try to brief her about the summary of the class discussion after every class is over and this way she is able to take up the lessons in a better manner even when few concepts are explained in Hindi by the professor. She was also trying to learn and converse in Hindi so that she could adjust well with her classmates. I was happy to see her efforts and her progress. Soon her professors had all praises for her because they could see her contributing in class and also putting in efforts for progress. 

Ms Devyani Singha is Vice President of WICCINPWC, A counselling psychologist for the past 5 years. She shares her early years experience as a young Counsellor below

"During my first job at a Rehabilitation centre for drug and alcohol abuse I was introduced to a very different socio economic category and also cultural background. It was my first ever encounter with individuals who were ready to sell their family jewellery or gamble their house for a bottle of alcohol or a few grams of drugs. 

I was incharge of their inpatient counselling and also family counselling for their better integration back to the society once their treatment was over. 

During one such counselling session there was this married man who came from rural Punjab. He kept on talking about how normal it was to not listen to the wife , not give her importance in any matter and she is only there to serve the man and the family without fail. Treating women like this was  "normal" in their culture and wasn't frowned upon. For me personally this was the first time that I could not hold back my opinions and if I look back at the situation I didn't deal with it effectively. I allowed my biases and own perspectives to come into the therapy session. I was visibly upset and irritated with the whole narrative and didn't want to speak to him anymore. 

If the same interaction happens today - I will definitely deal with it differently as over a period of time I have understood different communities, thoughts , perspectives. I may not believe in them or stand by them or approve morally but my job as a counsellor is not to Judge but to empower every individual with the correct knowledge and thoughts and then they can decide what they feel is appropriate for them. 

This was the point in my life where a lot of my values , morals and way of living life were questioned. Now I make conscious efforts to not let this impact my professional life."

Ms Archana Singal our Council member has also been a Counselling Psychologist. Her life experience of overcoming Cultural Barriers also stems from a counselling case which she has beautifully shared below. 

"At the time when I was working with a reputed NGO, I came across my first case in couple therapy- this one couple belonging to different cultures and very different educational and financial backgrounds. Their principles of life, health, and well-being were totally different. The wife came from a dysfunctional and enmeshed family. Also, she had to face gender inequality issues since childhood as her brothers were given several privileges and she was denied those. After marriage, when she came to the family which was way more progressive than hers she found it difficult to adjust. She would not like the independence her husband would want her to attain in terms of decision-making, upbringing of kids, or running the household. She would feel unwanted and uncared for when her husband would encourage her to do things in her own way and not seek his advice for small matters. 

As I  believe now when I look back that I identified my own background more with the husband, initially, for a few minutes I kept thinking about how to make the wife see things in a different light but then I realized that it's not just her, the husband too must see the way she sees things. It's supposed to be a mutual effort. I realized people from different cultural groups may be negatively stereotyped or heavily discriminated against because of their differences from a main culture. Social situations and work can bring together people from various cultures which may or may not result in friction between individuals. Regardless of one's background, healthy relationships depend on tolerance, compassion, and willingness to learn about others’ differences. 

So, this very first session made me learn an important lesson that I as a counsellor have to use different approaches to therapy within different cultures as culture may magnify the issues and that I need to approach all my clients with openness, flexibility, and creativity. I took it as beginning of a journey of gaining knowledge, personal awareness, sensitivity, dispositions, and skills pertinent to being a culturally competent counsellor in working with a diverse client population" 

Ms Shruti Jha, our Council member who is a practising Clinical Psychologist also shares her experience citing one of the sessions in her young days of practice. 

"The context of cultural barriers in everyday practice of psychotherapy takes me to one of the earliest cases that I had handled as an intern. The client hailed from a rural village in India who recently moved to a bustling city for work. He sought therapy due to increasing feelings of isolation, anxiety, and low self-esteem. He came from a collectivist culture where family and community bonds were paramount.

As a novice therapist, I was guided by my supervisor to use different strategies to address cultural barries and

feelings of isolation. My increased cultural sensitivity fostered an environment where he felt comfortable discussing his struggles without fear of any judgement. Over time, his anxiety and self-esteem issues began to improve. He gained a better understanding of how to balance his cultural values with the demands of city life and learnt to adapt strategies from therapy to his unique cultural 

context. Through this collaboration, he gained tools to cope with his challenges while staying

connected to his cultural identity." 

With all these examples we hope to bring to light that being a part of a diverse country of religion , thoughts , perspectives , cultural identities comes with its own challenges but with insight and the willingness to accept these and further work upon them is something we all can strive towards.