Navigating racial/cultural boundaries: A qualitative analysis of counseling process in a cross-racial dyad

Research shows that Asian Americans' underutilization of mental health services (U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2001) could relate to factors like adherence to certain ethnic values (Kim, 2007a) and unfamiliarity with counseling (Akutsu & Chu, 2006). However, the impacts of racial and cultural factors on cross-cultural/racial interpersonal processes in counseling are largely left unexplored. In particular, Hong and her colleagues (2000) found that Asian Americans learn to internalize dual cognitive cultural networks, one from the mainstream U.S. culture and the other one from their culture of origin, to manage the sometimes conflicting demands in various social and cultural contexts. Gaertner and Dovidio (2000) found that when interacting with non-White individuals, many Whites express liberal racial beliefs but display prejudiced interpersonal behaviors. I incorporated theories of Asian Americans' bicultural experience and Whites' interactions with non-Whites into my examination of the interpersonal dynamics observed in a cross-cultural/racial counseling process involving a White therapist and Korean client. In order to capture these dynamics, I qualitatively analyzed transcripts of a 12-session the therapy process. Using Carspecken's (1996) critical ethnography as the structure of data analysis, I found that the therapist and client's negotiation of their different problem solving approaches was shaped by the client's strong desires to learn from the therapist American ways of coping with issues. The therapist's tacit agreement on what the client suggested a "good foreigner" should be like also contributed to this seemly smooth negotiation process. Although the therapist and client shared much commonality and built a strong rapport, their identities as a culturally sensitive counselor and an appreciative service recipient, respectively, constrained their discourses on racial/cultural issues and diverted them from confronting differences in their perspectives. Implications of these findings on re-conceptualizing multicultural competence are discussed.