4.B.2
Consulting from the consultee's world: profession, culture and context
Énoncé de compétence 4.B.2 d’ASPPB : Provide consultation based on knowledge of others’ professional needs or viewpoints (e.g., diversity factors, societal context)
Consultation works when it fits the consultee's profession, culture and circumstances. Other professions have their own goals, language, time pressures and values; communities have their own priorities and histories; and societal conditions such as poverty, stigma or a housing shortage shape the problem. The consultant learns these first, speaks in the consultee's terms and builds solutions with the consultee rather than importing a clinical template.
Notions clés
- Professional viewpoints
- Each profession works under its own mission, pace and rules. APA's competencies for primary care psychology include systems and relationships domains, since the psychologist works inside medical teams and their routines; useful input fits the consultee's workflow and language.
- Ecological view of identity
- APA's Multicultural Guidelines place people within layered contexts and intersecting identities, including language, religion, social class, immigration status and experiences of marginalization, and apply explicitly to consultation.
- Cultural humility
- Hook and colleagues defined cultural humility as an other-oriented stance marked by respect and a lack of superiority toward another's cultural background. Clients' perceptions of it were linked to stronger working alliances and to improvement in therapy.
- Societal context
- Problems brought to a consultant often reflect structural conditions. Naming those conditions keeps the consultant from locating the whole problem in individuals and points to system partners and practical supports.
- Partnership
- With communities and other professions, the consultant shares expertise while treating the consultee's knowledge as equally essential, and decisions about goals and methods are made together.
Exemple commenté
A city's public library asks a psychologist for help because staff are unsure how to respond when patrons who appear to be homeless become distressed or confused. Librarians value open access for everyone and the privacy of what patrons read and ask.
- Start by learning the library's mission and limits: staff are not clinicians, the building must stay open to all and patron privacy is a professional value.
- Frame the problem with its societal context, such as shelter capacity and the closing of daytime services, rather than as a set of difficult individuals.
- Build responses with staff in their own terms: a short guide to calm, respectful responses, a list of local outreach services and an agreed point at which to call a crisis team.
- Respect privacy by designing responses that do not require staff to record or report what patrons use the library for.
Fit the help to the consultee's mission, values and circumstances, and to the conditions that create the problem.
Vérifiez vos acquis
A school asks a consulting psychologist about frequent absences among students from one neighborhood. Interviews show that a bus route there was cut and many parents work night shifts. Which response best reflects consultation that takes societal context into account?
Sources
- McDaniel, Grus, Cubic, Hunter, Kearney, Schuman and colleagues (2014), Competencies for psychology practice in primary care, American Psychologist, 69(4), 409-429 (PMID 24820690), Abstract: six competency domains (science, systems, professionalism, relationships, application, education) for psychology in primary care teams
- Clauss-Ehlers, Chiriboga, Hunter, Roysircar and Tummala-Narra (2019), APA Multicultural Guidelines executive summary: Ecological approach to context, identity, and intersectionality, American Psychologist, 74(2), 232-244 (PMID 30762387), Abstract: layered ecological model, the cultural influences listed, application to consultation
- Hook, Davis, Owen, Worthington and Utsey (2013), Cultural humility: Measuring openness to culturally diverse clients, Journal of Counseling Psychology, 60(3), 353-366 (PMID 23647387), Abstract: definition of cultural humility; association with working alliance and improvement
- Multicultural Guidelines: An Ecological Approach to Context, Identity, and Intersectionality (APA, 2017), Guidelines on context, power and consultation with organizations and communities
- APA (2002, with the 2010 and 2016 amendments), Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct, Principle E, Respect for People's Rights and Dignity; Standard 2.01(b), Boundaries of Competence