TPC-Journal-V4-Issue5

The Professional Counselor \Volume 4, Issue 5 507 Recruiting Participants for the Group Recruiting immigrant and minority populations for counseling services involves providing an accessible service delivery location (Yuen, 1999). Recommended approaches for attracting group members include advertisements (e.g., hallways posters), referral networks (e.g., teachers) and announcements (e.g., classroom presentations; Gladding, 2008; Kline, 2003). The first author decided to take a straightforward approach by putting up posters and flyers around the school—in hallways and homerooms, and on bulletin boards. Because it was important to use language that lacked stigmatization, she carefully planned the posters. She used a term familiar to South Asians, Desi , which describes individuals who identify themselves as South Asian or with South Asian culture (e.g., music, traditions, films, food). The flyers read, “Come and meet other Desi’s in the school! Want to learn more? Come to room 200.” That approach, however, proved ineffective; after two months not a single student had inquired about the group. Next she asked teachers for referrals, approached the identified students during their homeroom period and described the group. Again, she used terms such as support group , sharing , confidential place and time to meet others in lieu of the more stigmatized language of mental health counseling . Although most students showed interest, they communicated skepticism about joining a group. Refusing to give up, she pondered Yuen and Nakano-Matsumoto’s (1998) suggestion highlighting the importance of finding an appropriate point of entry for recruiting immigrant populations. She walked around campus targeting the places where South Asians congregated during passing hall periods and lunchtimes. She introduced herself, discussed her role at the school, disclosed her own ethnic identity as a South Asian and invited students to drop by her office at lunchtime. After an entire semester of drop-in encounters, a group of girls agreed to participate and the idea of a group for South Asian students became a reality. Background of the Group Facilitator and Participants When contemplating recruitment for the group, the first author believed that her background would be advantageous. Born in London, England, she was raised in an Asian Indian family; she speaks Hindi and Gujerati (Asian Indian languages) in addition to English. It seemed intuitive that her commonalities of background and language with the students would facilitate initial recruitment as well as rapport building. (As she learned, however, this was only partially true). The group participants were first-generation immigrants, born outside the United States, or second- generation immigrants, born in the United States. All group members identified culturally as South Asian, but came from different countries in South Asia. They shared similar customs, food, clothing and popular culture (film and music). However, because the students’ home countries were different, the students spoke various languages. Moreover, as the group progressed, distinct cultural traditions (e.g., age of marriage) and values (e.g., definitions of beauty) emerged, along with differences in the girls’ perspectives on those beliefs and values. As the authors describe the first author’s reflections of the group, they carefully maintain the anonymity of the girls’ disclosures and share only overall themes and activities in the context of South Asian culture in general. Reflections on Facilitating the Group When the first author chose group work for the South Asian girls, she identified the counseling group as the most appropriate type of group. The counseling group utilizes members’ interactive feedback and support to help address problems of living, which may be related to transitions or development (Corey, Corey, & Corey, 2010). For adolescent immigrant students, these everyday problems often involve the challenges of adjusting