Kit, Irena Phey Ling

Research on Asian Indian American indicates anunder-utilization of mental health services within this minority group. This chapter provides a cultural profile of individuals from this ethnic minority group. The primary focus of this chapter is to provide culturally sensitive guidelines for practice in psychological assessment and counseling when working with Asian Indian Americans. The first section provides an overview of the cultural context of the Asian Indian American in terms of issues related to formation of ethnic identity and degree of acculturation, the importance of family, gender roles and expectations, and commonly held cultural beliefs, values and customs. It also indicates potential stressors that may be commonly experienced among Asian Indian Americans. The second section describes the attitudes towards mental illness, disability and help seeking behaviors prevalent among Asian Indian Americans that act as a deterrent in accessing mental health services. The third section provides culturally sensitive recommendations to increase accessibility and acceptance of mental health services among Asian Indian Americans. Guidelines include solutions to increase service utilization by customizing service delivery methods to fit client needs, using systems based and directive approaches to understand the Asian Indian American client, allocating counselors based on client values and gender preferences, and collaborating with medical professionals and indigenous healers to provide more comprehensive mental health services to this minority population.

This study presents a qualitative exploration that uses three methodological genres (Conversation Analysis, Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis and Modified Grounded Theory) under Elliot’s (1984, 1993) Comprehensive Process Analysis (CPA) framework to analyse the experiences of 16 novice group counsellors (of which 13 were from Singapore and three were from three other Asian countries) in two in-class face-to-face and on-line support groups. The 16 novice group counsellors rotated through the roles of co-facilitators and members.

The data corpus for analysis included transcripts of all face-to-face and on-line support group sessions, as well as individual and co-facilitator reflection papers. Accuracy of data capture and interpretation was enhanced by analytical checks provided by two research assistants and two external auditors, all of whom spoke two or more languages and had exposure to different cultures in the Asia-Pacific region, including the novice group counsellors’ countries of origin.

The occurrence and management of resistance of one group member in each group was deemed to be a significant type of critical incident by participants in both groups. This phenomenon of resistance was analysed using Conversation Analysis (CA) to understand how the groups co-constructed their experiences, and key interactional features were identified. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was then used to understand the meaning behind the novice group counsellors’ actions and experiences during the critical incidents. The results of CA and IPA for each group’s experience were then integrated into a story of its experience of resistance. During this process, the five superordinate themes of resistance, i.e. Responsibility, Authority, Alliances, Approach, and Respect, were identified as common to both groups.

Modified Grounded Theory (Jennings, D’Rozario, Goh, Sovereign, Brogger, & Skovholt, 2008) was used to explore the novice counsellors’ overall experiences of their support groups as members, co-facilitators, and with the face-to-face and on-line modalities. The study yielded three categories with two themes each for members’ experiences, four categories with 18 themes for co-facilitators’ experiences, and six categories with a total of 14 themes for participant’s experiences on face-to-face and on-line platforms. At the end of this process, a model of participants’ overall experiences was constructed using seven superordinate themes divided into three time-frames, Pre-Group, Support Group and Post-Group. Findings revealed that 15 out of 16 members reported enhanced self-awareness, and experienced their support groups as enjoyable and therapeutic. Twelve co-facilitators also reported having increased self-awareness of counselling styles, strengths and weaknesses. Fifteen participants were supportive of using the face-to-face modality for training, but only eight participants were supportive of using the on-line platform for training.

Overall, the superordinate theme of Alliance, as found in the stories of resistance, was also responsible for the overall membership experience of participants. The results and implications of this study are also discussed.

Although personal therapy was advocated as a route to personal and professional growth of therapists, it was rarely used in the training of non-professional counsellors, such as teachers and youth workers. This qualitative study explored the experiences of 15 undergraduate preservice teachers and youth workers from a university in Singapore who attended mandatory individual and group personal development sessions as part of para-counsellor training. Twelve subcategories in four categories were identified using Strauss’ and Corbin’s grounded theory methodology. Participants perceived that personal therapy influenced their personal and professional growth, and changed their perception of counselling from negative to positive. Their beliefs in the efficacy of counselling were validated, and they were more willing to seek help through counselling in future.

This study focused on the experiential learning experiences of eight trainee educational psychologists (school psychologists in the United States) from Singapore who participated in three role-play sessions during a two-day Basic Counseling Skills Training Program. Data collected from transcriptions of video-recorded sessions, a focus group discussion session, and responses to qualitative questionnaires were analyzed using Strauss and Corbin's Grounded Theory. The results of this study revealed that Western-style counseling andragogies such as realistic role-plays and immediate instructor feedback could be used effectively to teach Singaporean trainee educational psychologists basic counseling skills, and to broaden their understanding of the role of an educational psychologist. The study also revealed that the experience of failure in a role-play could be a motivator to change their practice both within and outside the classroom.

This Singapore study involved a sample of 3776 secondary school students to examine the role of educational hope in moderating the relationships between teacher-student relationship dimensions (instrumental help, emotional support, relationship satisfaction, relationship conflict) and student engagement dimensions (perceived importance of schooling, school belonging, and effort expenditure). Besides its main associations with the student engagement dimensions, educational hope was found to be a significant moderator in the relationships (a) between perceived teacher instrumental help and perceived importance of schooling, and (b) between perceived teacher emotional support and effort expenditure, such that students high on perceived instrumental help or teacher emotional support and educational hope were also those high on the perceived importance of schooling or effort expenditure. This study demonstrates that the constructs, though theorised in Western contexts, have empirical utility and relevance for understanding the engagement of students in the Singapore context. Implications arising from this study are discussed.

Psychology is a young discipline in Singapore. Hence, perceptions of the roles and responsibilities of an Educational Psychologist (EP) are still constantly being negotiated and redefined. This qualitative study examined how role negotiations and redefinitions could be actively facilitated through an experiential and intensive two-day Basic Counseling Skills training course. This course was attended by eight trainee EPs enrolled in the only Masters Level Educational Psychology training program in Singapore. A grounded analysis of their pre-and-post training qualitative questionnaires and focus group discussion revealed the group’s evolving conceptualizations about their roles as EPs from mere test-administrator to a recognition of the need for a more systemic approach in providing intervention. The EPs also recognized their lack of capacity to respond to emotionally-distressed parents with compassion and sensitivity, and acknowledged the value of basic counseling skills training. Implications for training and future research are discussed.