Counseling Asian Americans: Implications for Training

Non-Asian Americans have paid much less attention to the problems of diverse Asian American groups such as Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indochinese (Vietnamese, Laotian, and Cambodian), Thai, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan, Asian Indian, Filipino as well as other diverse Asian American groups (Chandras, 1994). The greatest increase in Asian immigration began with the lifting of restrictive quotas on Asians after the passage of the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965 (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1981). It is estimated that there were no fewer than 8.5 million Asian and Pacific Islanders. residing in the United States in 1994. This. is more than double the number in 1980 (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1994). Asian and Pacific Islander populations will continue as the fastest growing ethnic group from 9 million in 1992 to a projected 40 million in 2050 (Bell, 1996; U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1992). The largest Asian groups in America are: (1) Chinese; (2), Filipinos; (3) Japanese; (4) Asian Indians: (5) Koreans; and (6)Vietnamese. The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (1992) held a series of round table conferences to learn about the civil rights concerns of Asian Americans in their communities. The conclusion of the study was that Asian Americans face widespread prejudice, discrimination, barriers to equal opportunity and lack full participation in American society (Chun & Zalokar, 1992; Takaki, 1996; U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, 1992). Training of multicultural counselors to work effectively with Asian American clients Existing research points out the fact that minority group persons underuse and prematurely terminate counseling due to the biased nature of these services (Atkinson & Matshusita, 1991). Most services offered are antagonistic, inappropriate, discriminative, insensitive and oppressive to the experiences of the culturally different clients (Sue & Sue, 1990; Mays & Albee, 1992). In the area of education, the treatment of Asian American students and faculty has reflected biases, stereotypes, and discriminatory behaviors similar to those found in the society as a whole (Herbert, 1992; Ho & Chin, 1983; Isgark & Isgark, 1989; Lessinger, 1995; Schine, 1993; Sue & Sue, 1973). There is widespread bigotry, prejudice, and behavioral and institutional racism against Asian Americans in higher education (Isgark & Isgark, 1989). There are numerous incidents of racism and violence against Asian American students. The following incident (Altbach, 1991) occurred at the University of Connecticut: In December 1987, six or seven white students spat tobacco juice on the hair of eight Asian-American students and called them oriental faggots, Chinks and Gooks, as both groups rode a crowded bus to a dance sponsored by the University of Connecticut. There were two student proctors in the bus, but they ignored the harassment aimed at the Asian American students. After arriving at the dance, the white students shoved and screamed at the Asian-Americans, while one indecently exposed himself to the group. The four Asian-American women present were so upset that they hid in a closet for the rest of the evening. They received little comfort from the proctor, who told them to relax and not to mind the white male students, who, according to him, were just having fun. An increasing number of counselors and helping professionals support the need for counselor educators and professional trainers to address the question of preparing competent counselors (Ridley, Mendoza, & Kanitz, 1994). The training programs do not consider the cultural influences affecting the minorities in the formation of their beliefs, behaviors, assumptions and careers (Arredondo-Dowd & Gonzales, 1980). Research studies show that graduates of counselor education programs feel that they are unprepared to work effectively with culturally diverse clients (Allison, Crawford, Echemendia, Robinson, & Knepp, 1994). …