Counseling Arab Americans

By Author: Henry Ford
Total Articles: 189
Comment this article

Question 1
Arab Americans comprise of Arabs who migrated to the United States and either became citizens of the country or lives on temporary bases. They represent one of the growing minority groups in the country. Having migrated from Arab countries in the Middle East, most of them brought with them their practices and more than other groups, they have remain attached to their practices even today. Arab Americans represent one of the closely knit cultural groups in the country. Arab Americans have developed a worldview that is quite different from the rest of the cultural groups in the United States. Their worldview is not only dictated by their cultural practices but also by their religions. Majority of Arab Americans and Muslims and their worldview is constructed around Islamic religion (Nassar-McMillan, 2007). In addition, religion plays an important role in dictating the perception of Arab Americans by the rest of the society. They identity is built around Islam and their practices, political, economical, or social are also constructed around the Islamic religion.
Current perception, attitudes, values and beliefs ...
... of Arab Americans is constructed around their religion. They place their religions matters at a higher position than other issues in their life. Their religion, which is closely embedded to their cultural practices, defines their world view and attitudes towards the world. They see the rest of the society as immoral because it does not align with their religion beliefs. Their attitudes and relationship towards other people is dictated by religion and they are likely to relate more with their fellow Muslims and family friends than other people. For example, most Arab Americans are against western practices including counseling because it does not draw from Muslim religion (Nassar-McMillan, 2007). Most important, the concept of Umma or the Muslim nation is important to Arab Americans. Their wellbeing is defined by the well being of the whole society and even their economic systems cater for the whole society and the individual as well. The concept of the whole society and individual being a part of the whole society has therefore influenced beliefs, practices, perception, attitudes, and behaviors of Arab Americans.
Question 2
Arab Americans are perhaps one of the minority groups that have been misunderstood by the rest of the population. They have been stereotyped in movies as sheiks, barbarians, and terrorists. They are perceived to be major supporters of terrorist and other barbaric acts in the world. Perception of Arab Americans is constructed around Islam, which has already been perceived and related to religion violence. There is a constructed perception of Arab Americans and violent people who cannot coexist with other non-Muslim people in a peaceful way (Jackson, 1997). Arab Americans are perceived to be religion intolerant and do not shy away from killing other people in the name of religion.
While counseling Arab Americans, there are important factors that need to be considered. The first and most important factor to consider while counseling Arab Americans is their religion. Counselors need to understand that Arab Americans draw a lot of their daily practices from their religion and any solution that is given to their problems should be implemented in consultation with religious tenets. Considering that most of the Arab Americans are Muslims, counselors should understand that Muslims believe in the existence of one God and they believe in taking individual responsibility for their actions. They believe that their life should be governed by provision in the Quran, which is their holy book equivalent to Christian bible (Nassar-McMillan, 2007). Therefore, counselors need to understand the basic provisions and obligations of Arab Americans to their religion.
Another important factor that counselors need to understand is their obligation to their families. The family is very important to Arab Americans. Unlike other communities that are attached to individual family units, Arab Americans are closely bound together and the influence of the extended family still remains. The values of the families vary widely but there are some commonalities especially those that are drawn from religion. Family is seen as being the most important to an individual life (Youssef & Deane, 2006). The family is of central importance to individual conduct and actions that may bring shame to the family are discouraged not only in Muslim religion but also by individual Arab Americans. The life of Arab Americans rotates around pleasing their God, the individual and the family. This means that most of the individual conducts are regulated by the family. When one acts against the family, they are likely to be rejected not only by their family but also the rest of the community because their actions are contrary to religious beliefs. On the other hand, the centrality and significance of the family may enrich Arab American’s life because it may offer extended network of support and guidance. In view of the family, counselors need to understand that there is very specific division of work in Arab American families (Hall & Livingston, 2006). Women have the responsibility of rearing their children and homemaking and rarely go to work. Although this is contrary to most western cultures, Arab American women have accepted it as dictated by their religion. Matters regarding close mixing of opposite sex are also another major challenge among Arab Americans because mixing of opposite sex individuals outside the family is not allowed.
In light of the above, there are important guidelines to be followed by counselors when handling Arab Americans. First, they need to identify their attitudes and perception about Arab Americans. Then, they need to inquire about the importance of religion in the lives of their clients. They should also make effort to determine the structure of the family through questions and observation. For those who still believe in traditional family structures, all remedies should be made in reference to the male head figure in the family. Most of those with traditional family practices may be reluctant on negative self-disclosure and are also reluctant to share family negative feelings with therapist. All remedies should be made in reference to religion.

The author is associated with

The author is senior writer at https://www.allacademicanswers.com