Cross‐Cultural Counseling and Neurolinguistic Mirroring With Native American Adolescents

Abstract

This study examined the effects of neurolinguistic mirroring versus nonmirroring of selected nonverbal behaviors on empathy, trustworthiness, and positive interaction in a cross-cultural setting among 60 Choctaw adolecents and Caucasian female counselors. Results indicated significant mirroring effects on the empathy scale of the Barrett-Lennard Relationship Inventory.The quality of the therapeutic relationship is a prime consideration in counseling and psychotherapy. Good rapport in the counseling relationship has consistently been associated with beneficial changes (Carkhuff & Berenson. 1967;Egan, 1975; Rogers, 1957). For this reason, empathy and trustworthiness, the two core elements of a rapport, have become the sine qua Ron of effective counseling pepper & Haase, 1978). They are particularly crucial in cross-cultural counseling. According to Atkinson, Morten, and Sue (1983):Much of the criticism related to minority group counseling focuses upon the interactions that occur between counselor and client. Counseling is seen as a process of interpersonal interaction and communication which requires accurate sending and receiving of both verbal and nonverbal messages. When the counselor and client come from different cultural backgrounds, barriers to communication are likely to develop, leading to misunderstandings that destroy rapport and render counseling ineffective. (p. 16) Daga S. Sandhu is an assistant professor in the Department of Educational and Counseling Psychology at the Uniuers@ of Louisville, Louisville. Kentucky. T. Glen Reeves i s a professor of counselor education a t Mississippi State University, Mississippi State. M r o R. Portes i s an associate professor in the Department of Educational and Counseling Psychology at the University of Louisville. Louisville. Kentucky. 106 Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development / April 1993 / Vol. 21 / l(M118 (1971) found that "total liking equals 7% verbal liking plus 38% vocal liking plus 55% facial liking" (p. 43). suggesting that nonverbal factors far outweigh verbal. Several other researchers (Argyle Mehrabian

The alliance in adolescent therapy: Conceptual, operational, and predictive issues.

“…Before this period, research on the relationship in adolescent treatment tended to use more general relationship measures or measures that focused on the qualities of the clinician. These measures included the following: the Barrett-Lennard Relationship Inventory (Barrett-Lennard, 1962), considered the pioneer instrument for patient and therapist judgments of the therapeutic relationship (M. R. Luborsky, 1994) and used with adolescents in seven studies (Hansen, Zimpfer, & Easterling, 1967;Joseph,1997;Lanning & Lemons, 1974;Maurer & Tindall, 1983;McNally & Drummond, 1973;Sandhu, Reeves, & Portes, 1993;Selfridge & Vander Kolk, 1976); the Carkhuff 's scales (Carkhuff, 1969), used with adolescents in two studies (Joseph, 1997;McNally & Drummond, 1973); the Counselor Rating Form (Barak & LaCrosse, 1975;Corrigan & Schmidt, 1983), used with adolescents in three studies (Blankenship, Eels, Calozzi, Perry, & Barnes, 1998;Hagborg, 1991;Sandhu et al, 1993); the Origin Climate Questionnaire (De Charms, 1976), used with adolescents in Taylor, Adelman, and Kaser-Boyd (1986); the Personal and Professional Therapist Qualities and Characteristic Rating Form modified (Hatfield, 1983); the Leathers Nonverbal Feedback Rating Instrument (Leathers, 1978), used with adolescents in Sandhu et al (1993); the Feeling Word Checklist (Holmqvist & Armelius, 1994), used with adolescents in Holmqvist et al (2007); the Impact Message Inventory-Circumplex (Kiesler, 1996), used with adolescents in Auerbach et al (2008); and the Client-Therapist Relationship Scale (Noser & Bickman, 2000), which is a derivative of a satisfaction questionnaire. As this list of instruments indicates, there is substantial variability in the types of measures used to assess the relationship in adolescent therapy.…”

Thirty-Five Years of Research on Neuro-Linguistic Programming. NLP Research Data Base. State of the Art or Pseudoscientific Decoration?

“…Studies on the application of NLP by employees of Southern India companies were conducted without any control group (Singh & Abraham, 2008), and so were studies on the application of NLP for treating post-traumatic stress disorder (Muss, 1991). The latter work from this category showed positive effects of neuro-linguistic mirroring in cross-cultural counseling (Sandhu, Reeves & Portes, 1993).…”

Preservice music teachers' and therapists' nonverbal behaviors and their relationship to perceived rapport

“…In another study, counselors were judged as more trustworthy and expert when they used responsive nonverbal behaviors such as head nodding, vocal variety, facial expressiveness, eye contact and gestures than when they used less responsive nonverbal behaviors (Claiborn, 1979). Researchers have also found that counselors who matched their postures to those of their clients, exhibited facial affect and leaned forward had greater rapport with their clients than counselors who did not exhibit these nonverbal behaviors (Charney, 1966;Sandhu, Reeves, & Portes, 1993;Sharpley, Jeffrey, & Mcmah, 2006;Sharpley & Sagris, 1995;Trout & Rosenfeld, 1980). Touch, when perceived as an indication of personal warmth, has been associated with increased rapport and as an indication of a music therapist's effectiveness and rapport (Belgrave, 2006).…”