Races in the World

It is common knowledge that there are quite a number of races in the world. Different races represent different cultures meaning that there way of doing things is also different. I belong to a certain race and a situation might arise where I seek the services of a counselor who apparently belongs to a different race (Mack, 1996. I really don’t care about the race which the counselor belongs as long as he or she is qualified and therefore will be able to help me out. A good counselor is the one who shares the same sentiments with me. Racism means discrimination against others. It will mean that I will not be in a good position to disclose my situation as much as he or she might try to be friendly to me.

The counselor will not be keen to listen to what I have to say simply because I come from a different race. This will be irrespective of whether he has good listening skills or not. This situation will deter open mindedness and therefore the counselor might be forced to be judgmental. He or she might also feign his friendliness and worst of all he or she will not be empathic. He or she will not be able to respect my views, personal experiences, spirituality and culture as a client. The aspect of racism might also lead to the counselor not being honest and genuine (Mack, 1996). Without racism both from the client and the counselor, I expect to get motivation from the counselor since he would have chosen to help me out of true concern and not thinking about glorifying himself. He or she will also not discriminate against me simply because I don’t come from the same race as he does. There will also be high level of energy from both parties making the process to take the shortest time possible and thus saving time which can be used for other valuable activities.

The ability of the counselor to build trusting relationships is also key. This is used as an initial ice breaker. It makes people have trust in the counselor, feel comfortable and acceptable. The counselor should also go ahead and be flexible in terms of time (Mack, 1996).

He or she should be able to accommodate the client in his or her schedule. He or she must make him/herself available to assist others by placing ones needs second.

Even though most of my personal attributes are similar to those of a good counselor; I established that counselors additionally need to be confidential. This is an attribute that lacks from my list. This presents a sharp contrast between a counselor and me because due to the nature of their work, they have to be very confidential while discharging their work. This will help them keep private information of their clients. Some issues are very sensitive to be exposed outside the scope of the two of them (Hermansson, 2009). For instance someone may be stressed due to the fact that he/she is suffering from a certain disease and does not want anyone to realize it. They will therefore entrust their private information with the counselor for fear of stigmatization from friends, family or the society at large. A strong ability to keep clients’ private information is of utmost importance in the field of counseling.