1. 1.

How can cultural values influence the likelihood of seeking professional help in crisis
situations and receptivity to that help? Be specific.

2. 2. Explain culture shock and its possible manifestations in a client.

3. 3. Ask 3 people from three different sub-cultures what kinds of crisis they experience,
and what a counsellor could do to best help them deal with it. (The aim is to understand
their experience and expectations, not to evaluate them).

4. 4. Compare your societys typical responses to the responses described by people from
different cultures, noting both similarities and differences.

1. 1. How can cultural values influence the likelihood of seeking professional help in crisis
situations and receptivity to that help? Be specific.

I shall start my analysis on this question taking the risk of stating a truism by arguing that
almost of all us, as human beings, are experiencing during our lives or, at least, witnessing,
directly or indirectly, crisis situations. We react differently and the impact on us, in the
medium or long run, is different. Some of us may experience directly natural disasters, wars,
immigration, divorces, rape, assault, burglary, domestic violence, poverty, others only
indirectly, on TV, news etc or others, the most lucky ones, to keep themselves so far away
from all these events whose existence may be absolutely ignored.

Crisis may be individual or collective, may be a once in a life-time or happening on a more

regular basis. It may leave us very traumatised or by having experienced it or witnessed it so
many times to react in a more defending way.

Crisis encompasses many definitions depending on the type of crisis, individual, collective,
economic, social, psychological, political etc.

A crisis can be defined as a moment, a period of breakdown, a turning point, a time of

economic crisis (Kopaliski, 2000: 282). It is associated with an enduring disruption of the
regular and goal-oriented activities, upsetting the functional balance, and even with a threat to
ones existence. The basic characteristics of a crisis include the surprise factor, time pressure,
late response, a loss of control, a danger to important functions, an increase in tension, and
information deficit (Gobiowski, 2003: 10).

Caplan (1961) states that people are in crisis when they face an obstacle that is, for a time,
insurmountable by the use of customary methods of problem solving.

Brammer (1985) considers crisis to be a state of disorganisation in which people face

frustration of important life goals or profound disruption of their life cycles and methods of
coping with stressors.

Coping with the effects of a crisis is an individual or/and a collective matter.

In order to answer the question How can cultural values influence the likelihood of
seeking professional help in crisis situations and receptivity to that help we need to
define the terms and examine the links between culture crisis- asking help accepting
the help received.
And we need to contextualise more if the crisis is lived at personal level or is related to
community level.
I will try to discuss both of them, giving some specific examples throughout the
presentation.

We can start from the assumption that most people do not see themselves as needing mental
health services following a disaster and will not seek out such services, regardless of culture.
Mental services request may be assumed as a low priority for most of people having faced the
harmful consequences of a crisis situation. Depending on the nature of the crisis, most of the
time basic needs have to be covered, physiological and of subsistence. The personal losses,
the personal suffering are usually experienced privately and especially after a crisis situation
with victims on collective level, seeking help for the personal trauma may seem
inappropriate.

We can start also the analysis from the assumption that people respond and recover from
disaster within the context of their culture. For example, some culture may be more emotional
in displaying their distress, in helping themselves without any restrictions, in collectively
engaging in the reconstruction project. Other cultures may be more self-centred and consider
shameful to accept charity, help or to be seen in the posture of weak victims and reluctant
to ask or accept help from outside. There may be cultures that mistrust outside help on basis
of their previous historical or personal experiences or prejudices like the occidental
imperialism or similar reasons.
As a result of past or present experiences with racism and discrimination, racial and ethnic
minority groups may distrust offers of outside assistance, even following a disaster. They
may also be unfamiliar with the social and cultural mechanism of receiving assistance and
remain outside the network of aid. Lack of familiarity with sources of community support
and lack of transportation are common barriers for many immigrants and unwillingness to
disclose their immigration status is a major barrier.

Depending on the gravity of the crisis, of the damages behind, people affected may be willing
to accept help, especially of the approach is not perceived as intrusive or offensive. Even in
distress people keep their pride and it is important to know how to offer support. As a general
rule, when in big distress any kind of help is usually welcome, if not perceived inappropriate
or culturally insensitive.
In regards to what a culturally appropriate behaviour means there are many aspects one
should take into consideration.

One first aspect may be the perception some cultural groups have about the threat, about what
kind of thereat may be traumatic, their interpretation of the threat's meaning, the nature of the
expression of symptoms in response to such threats, the cultural context of the responses of
traumatized people, as well as the cultural responses by others to those who have been
traumatized, and the culturally prescribed paths to recovery from experiencing life-
threatening events.

For example, one case that was widely discussed in the media especially in regards to the
response of one entire community to an outrageous event concerns the shooting in the Amish
community. It happened on October 2, 2006 in a school where a man took hostages and shot
eight out of ten girls (aged 613), killing five, before committing suicide in the schoolhouse.
The reaction of the community to this crisis situation surprised and Amish community
emphasised on forgiveness and reconciliation. Famous for their peaceful attitude towards the
world, their response was centred on forgiveness; revenge, is not a value in their culture and
they hated only the sin not the sinner. In such culture, the likelihood to seek professional
help in extremely low as the community support and solidarity is well rooted in their
philosophy of life.
We may assume that countries or cultural groups exposed more frequently to crisis situations
may be more prone to seek professional help as, chances are, special services or organisms
have been already installed.

Traumas are frightening, often dangerous, and/or violent events or conditions that are
experienced as overwhelming to a family and/or any or all its individual members. These
experiences can include breaches in the protective shield or social contract that diminish a
familys sense of safety and support. Each member of the family may experience trauma
differently but each individual family members adaptation is linked to the reactions and
responses of the others. There are many kinds of potentially traumatic experiences, such as: