Communication Styles:

This is for a mental health counseling class. I need some notes just to see where I can start please.

• Discuss the centrality of communication (verbal and non-verbal) in counseling with diverse clients. Briefly define proxemics, kinesics, paralanguage, and high-low context communication.
• Consider the counselor’s communication in The Impact of Diversity and analyze how her communications may have been perceived by the Gonzalez family (for example, quietly jotting notes on a clipboard, refusing a refreshment).
• How could increased awareness of cultural considerations related to ethnicity and economic resources improve the counseling intern’s interactions with and understanding of the Gonzalez family?
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There are four purposes of communication (1): To convey information, to ask for help, to entertain, and to influence the listener.

Good communication is essential between a client and counselor; however, it is sometimes difficult for a client to express verbally how they are feeling. This is why a counselor must be able to understand non-verbal communication. A person communicates with their facial expressions, eye contact, body movements, posture, touch, voice, space, and gestures. A person’s culture can also determine the meaning of their non-verbal language and how it is interpreted. Expressions can have various meanings and implications in different cultures. The Nepalese people shake their head from side to side to imply the answer yes; therefore, it is recommended that interpretation of a person’s non-verbal language not be based on only a few non-verbal messages (2). It is possible to judge a person’s emotions accurately if you understand the person’s culture and what the non-verbal message can be interpreted as. In order to more accurately interpret a client’s non-verbal language it can be helpful to use the RESPECTFUL Counseling Cube (3). The components of the RESPECTFUL cube area: R- religion and spirituality; R – economic class background; E- economic class background; S – sexual identity; P-psychological maturity; E) Ethnic and racial identity. E – Chronological stage; T- Trauma; F- family background; U-unique physical