TPC-Journal-V4-Issue1

78 The Professional Counselor \Volume 4, Issue 1 bia in order to maintain the family business. Both of his siblings are pursuing what he considers “successful” careers; his older brother is in law school and his older sister is in medical school. James has one year left to complete his undergraduate degree and is currently studying accounting. His relationships with his parents and siblings are important to him; however, he admits to hiding information, including his visits to therapy and feelings regarding friends and familial issues, as he fears reprisal or invalidation. He also consistently compares himself to his older siblings and feels that he does not live up to his potential within his family. Lastly, James has a fairly large social network, belonging to a coed fraternity for the past 2 years. Although he interacts with several members of the organization, he consistently feels misunderstood or ignored. RCT Counselor Response RCT is a broad and flexible framework, which can be employed in a multitude of ways. For the purposes of this article, the authors take a closer look at using worldview/cultural context, authenticity, disconnections, and mutual empathy in order to understand a different way to relate to James. The authors also demonstrate how each of these facets can be incorporated with microskills training. Worldview/cultural context. In order to set the stage for client conceptualization, the initial focus of the relationship should be the client’s cultural context. Exploring the client’s worldview will give the practitioner an opportunity to understand the client’s cultural context and allow the client to feel heard, which is essential to RCT and the therapeutic alliance. After a few sessions, the counselor notes that James operates in many differ- ent areas, creating a rich worldview for the counselor to explore. It is important at this stage to employ culturally educated questioning to enhance the counselor’s multicul- tural knowledge regarding the client. The counselor asks open-ended questions that are tailored to gather spe- cific information about the client’s worldview as more information is shared between the client and counselor. Through exploration of his worldview, James indicates that his primary identification is a student, which colors all of his other worldviews and affects the primacy of other responsibilities contained within his other cultural contexts. James’s secondary identification is being a fraternity member. However, due to his studies, there are times when he is forced to forgo fraternity events so that he can be prepared for classes. The stress caused from his failing grades and inability to meet fraternal obligations adds to his anger issues. James also discusses his Colombian heritage and the importance of family, giving insight to his decision making. Exploring James’s daily activities, cultural groups and relationships helps build initial rapport and creates an early therapeutic alli- ance, while also giving insight into possible stressors for James. This alliance is carried through to other parts of the session, as the client feels comfortable giving detail, knowing that his particular worldview will be encour- aged and respected. Connections and disconnections. James feels unheard by his fraternity brothers and inferior to his family members. Deeper investigations into these relationships reveal that James’s peers and family members are not able to accept and understand his feelings, creating an empathic disconnect. The results of this disconnect cause James to become aggressive when he cannot get his point across. Using RCT, the counselor and James analyze the disconnection in each of his familial relationships and how they affect his current functioning and relation- ships with others. For example, James’s relationship with his brother is often very tense, causing him to retreat from conflict or release his anger in a nonproductive fashion. These behaviors are repeated when James comes into conflict with others, such as his fraternity brothers. Next, the counselor helps James identify positive, mutually beneficial connections with others in his social circle. When asked what is different about these relationships, he shares that he feels open to discussing his emotions with these individuals and that his feelings are valued. To help build the therapeutic alliance, the coun- selor directly asks James what can be done to build a similar, mutually beneficial connection within their coun-