Value Conflicts in Counseling Muslim LGBT Clients: Muslim Counsellors’ Experiences

Abstract

The counselling profession has an affirmative stance towards LGBT clients. It is contradicting to the religious beliefs upheld by majority counsellors in the Muslim society. The difference between the stance of the counselling profession and religious beliefs create value conflicts among Muslim counsellors from the mainstream group. A grounded theory approach was used to explain how Muslim counsellors experience value conflicts in counselling Muslim LGBT clients. In-depth interviews were conducted with six counsellors at Public Institutions of Higher Education (PIHE) in Peninsular Malaysia. The findings revealed that the Muslim counsellors experienced three types of value conflicts; conflicting goals, conflicting roles, and conflicting interests. In overcoming the conflicts, they used three strategies; seeking information, prioritizing religious over professional values, and balancing between personal and professional interests.

Reflection of Providing Culturally Safe Counselling to LGBTQIA+ Clients in Malaysia

“…Experiences of conflicts when navigating goals, roles and interests with LGBTQIA+ clients, however, are common for Malaysian counsellors. 10 My counselling work has centered on LGBTQIA+ individuals' struggles with minority stressors, identity concealment and cisheterosexism. My clients talked about minority stressors in the form of receiving hurtful responses from family members and friends when they made the decision to come out as an LGBTQIA+ person.…”

“…Experiences of conflicts when navigating goals, roles and interests with LGBTQIA+ clients, however, are common for Malaysian counsellors. 10…”

Lights and Shadows: Lived Experiences of Guidance Advocates in the Prac-tice of Ethical Bracketing

“…Since its origin, the counseling profession has acknowledged the importance of practicing under the guidance of ethics (Kimball, 2018). Because of the underlying professional principle of acting for the counselee's best interest, doing no harm, and maintaining professional boundaries in the delivery of services, the profession's ethics focus on the counselee's well-being and needs, which must take precedence over the professional's values (Cottone et al, 2021;Mahmood & Abdallah, 2020;Mansaray & Mani, 2020;Nor, 2020;Roxas et al, 2019). As a result, a set of principles for the profession has emerged (Francis & Dugger, 2014, as cited in Niles & Nassar, 2018), including ethical bracketing (ACA Code of Ethics, 2014).…”