Hackney, H. L., & Cormier, S. (2012). Crises and goal setting. In The professional counsellor: A process guide to helping (7th ed.) (pp. 102-106). Pearson Education.
When clients are in crisis, the notion of goal setting might seem to be the least likely of all activities. However, crisis dictates that certain goals must be achieved. Even if the contact is to be a single session (which is often the case in crisis counseling), three process goals are necessary:
- The counsellor must establish that the client is safe and lethality is reduced.
- The client is psychologically stable has attained short-term stability of self and situation.
- The client has been connected to appropriate formal and informal support/resources (Collins & Collins, 2005, p. 47).
To accomplish these three goals, the counsellor must solicit appropriate information about the client’s cognitive, affective, behavioural, and environmental conditions during the in-take portion of the contact.
Within the multicultural counseling context, the effect of goal setting is less well understood by counselors. Although there has been only limited research in this area, Taussig (1987) proposes that clients with varying racial/ethnic backgrounds respond positively to the goal-setting process. However, a note of caution is necessary. We have already observed how important it is that the counselor has a realistic and accurate understanding of the client's worldview and the client's world.
Sue and Sue (2008) state that, as a counseling goal, insight is not highly valued by many culturally diverse clients. People from lower socioeconomic classes frequently do not perceive insight as appropriate to their life situation and circumstances. Likewise, many cultural groups do not value insight (pp. 109-110).
Helping clients to identify goals that address conditions in their environment might be as important as goals that involve a change in their perceptions of their environment. Steenbarger (1993) illustrates this point:
Multicultural approaches ... arc derived from contextualist models of development that posit problems as a function of poor person-environment fit. Thus, client problems are not intra-psychic in this view, but instead arc derived from a fundamental tension between the demands and resources of the environment and the needs of the individual. (p. 10)
Another multicultural issue that affects goal setting is racial/cultural identity development. Numerous authorities have described the personal adjustment issues that are related to identity development (Atkinson, Morten, & Sue, 1989; Cross, 1971: Hall. Cross, & Freedle, 1972; Helms, 1990; Jackson. 1975; Sue & Sue, 1990). This work originally focused on black identity development but has been adapted to other minority groups and to white majority identity development as well. The developmental stages begin with Conformity (Stage I) and continue with Dissonance (Stage II), Resistance and Immersion (Stage III), Introspection (Stage IV), and conclude with Integrative Awareness (Stage V) (Atkinson et a]., 1989). Each of these stages manifests developmental issues that are related to one's attitude toward self, attitude toward others of the same minority, attitude toward others of different minorities, and attitude toward the dominant group. Although the literature has not applied this developmental model to other groups (e.g., lesbian/gay clients or persons with disabilities), there would appear to be some appropriateness of fit to other multicultural groups, too.
This range of issues related to multicultural development and personal adjustment have obvious goal-setting implications when you are working with a minority client. Your client is experiencing not only those problems that he or she is able to report to you, but also racial/cultural identity developmental issues of which the client is not even aware. Sue and Sue (1990) note that "therapists may often respond to the culturally different client in a very stereotypic manner and fail to recognize within-group or individual differences" that could be explained by racial/ cultural identity development (p. 93). Consequently, it is important that counselors be aware not only of skills related to working with minority clients but also of those identity issues that might make these clients different from clients of the majority culture.
Occasionally a counseling student will ask, "Why are all goals stated as behaviors? Aren't some client goals meant to change how one thinks, or to change how one feels?" The answer to this question is a complicated yes. It is complicated because many conditions that bring clients to counseling are maintained by their behavior. Feelings may or may not be caused by behavior, but they certainly can be maintained by unconstructive behaviors. Similarly, spiritual issues may not be caused by behavior, but they, too, can be maintained by unconstructive behavior. So goals are frequently behavioral in their formation. Nevertheless, we do wish to address the issue of existential or spiritual crisis as a special form of goal setting.
Existential and/or spiritual crises arise from a number of sources:
- A loss of personal identity or meaning of life
- A need to explore one's conception of divinity and what it means
- A loss of connectedness to life, to the universe, and to others and its implications for daily living
- A need to experience a relationship to the mystery of life; that is, how to live with doubt in a world that demands fact or reason
- A need to find quality leisure time without succumbing to the pressures to perform, achieve, or progress
- A need to experience life more fully and meaningfully
- A need to integrate personal meaning, relationship to a supreme being, connectedness to life, relationship to uncertainty in life, sense of worthiness in leisure, and fully experiencing life into one's being
Notice how these goals are nonspecific, nonbehavioral, and even noncognitive. Nevertheless, they can be very meaningful goals for some clients. Their resolution is far more in the power of the client than the counselor. That is, the counselor can facilitate the exploration of such goals, but the quest is dictated by the client's own sense of purpose and direction.
Some counselors may construe goal setting to mean that they listen to the client, make a mental assessment of the problem, then prescribe a solution or goal. In fact, such a procedure is likely to be unsuccessful. The nature of counseling is such that the client must be involved in the assessment of goals. Otherwise, the client’s participation is directionless or, even worse, counterproductive. An example will illustrate this point.
A beginning counselor was seeing a client who was overweight, self-conscious about her appearance, reluctant to enter into social relationships with others because of this self-consciousness, and very lonely. Realizing that the problem of being overweight was an important factor, the counselor informed the client that one goal would be for her (the client) to lose 1 to 3 pounds per week, under a doctor's supervision, of course. With this, the client became highly defensive and rejected the counselor's goal, saying, "You sound just like my mother."
Goal setting is highly personal. It requires a great deal of effort and commitment on the client's part. Therefore, the client must select goals that are important enough to make sacrifices to achieve. In the preceding example, the client's resistance could have been prevented if the counselor had moved more slowly, permitting the client to identify for herself the significance of her being overweight and the importance of potential weight loss. At this point, both the counselor and the client could then work together to determine the specific goals and subgoals that, when achieved, might alleviate the client's concerns. As with other aspects of the counseling relationship, goal setting should be an interactive process for which both counselor and client assume responsibility.
Occasionally, a client may be reluctant to participate in goal setting or make a commitment to change. Although it doesn't happen frequently, sometimes clients simply can't or won't participate. When this happens, the counselor must deal with the questions of why the client is not participating and if it is a lack of skill or it is resistance.
On the other hand, it may be that the client's reluctance to participate in goal setting is related to resistance issues. In dealing with client resistance to goals, it is helpful to realize that such behavior is purposeful; that is, what the client does or avoids doing achieves some perceived desirable result for the client (whether or not the client realizes it). You might find that the client who resists setting goals could be protecting the very behavior that is in need of modification because that behavior is also serving some desirable purpose. An example is the chronic smoker. Although an individual may recognize the negative consequences of smoking, including its addictive properties, he or she also clings to the habit, believing that it helps him or her relax during stressful moments, or that it increases the enjoyment of a good meal.
It becomes your task to get clients to identify what they gain from their current behavior. In so doing, you may help clients determine whether that gain or outcome can be achieved in more desirable ways. For example, a young student may reject the teacher's authority in order to gain attention from peers. Gaining attention may be a desirable outcome; it is the method that is the problem. Therefore, finding more appropriate ways of gaining increased attention would be a functional goal for counseling.
Sometimes clients resist attempts to establish goals because they feel that the counselor (either overtly or subtly) is pushing them in a certain direction. Unless clients can determine some personal goals for counseling, the probability of any change is minimal. You can avoid creating client resistance to goals by encouraging active participation by clients in the goal-setting process.
Finally, some clients resist goal setting because they are genuinely confused about their desired priorities, needs, and wants. They know what is wrong in their lives, but they cannot visualize a better life. These clients may resist goal setting because it puts them in touch with their confusion, and also because there is an implicit demand for them to sort things out and look beyond their reality. With such clients, it is often very helpful to acknowledge their confusion directly.
COUNSELOR: Lawanda, I can see you trying and I do know that it's really difficult to imagine a different or an improved situation.
If you give clients permission to move at their own pace, the pressure to set goals does not compound their already building sense of frustration and powerlessness. Indeed, the process of identifying desired priorities, needs, and wants is a goal in itself.
Three other possible strategies to help clients set goals include:
- Language work. Ask the client to complete open-ended sentences such as "I want.. .." "I do not want...," "I need...," "I do not need...." "I choose to...," and so on.
- Imagery and visualization. Ask the client to imagine him- or herself in an ideal situation and describe it—or to visualize someone else who embodies the qualities and behaviors the client desires. What are those qualities?
- Role-play and enactment. Ask the client to attempt to reenact the problem through a role-play.
Some clients may be very conflicted about competing priorities and needs. They may identify several possible directions or options, but they may still be in conflict and thus unable to choose which course of action is the best one to pursue. These clients resist goal setting because it exposes the conflict, which often feels uncomfortable or painful. It looks easier to mask or avoid than to deal with the issue head-on. With such clients, it is often helpful to use confrontation (described earlier in this chapter) to point out the apparent conflict:
COUNSELOR: Lucy, on the one hand, you're saying that you want to have some stability in your life. At the same time, you're saying you are considering a job offer in which you will be required to move every 2 years.
Confrontation is particularly useful for identifying and describing the conflict.
