Our Model of Counselling
The counselling model, which has been developed by Mothertongue, underpins all of the work that we do.
At Mothertongue we try to respect, understand and represent different backgrounds by:
- Taking care to reassure clients about confidentiality
- Recruiting staff and volunteers from a wide range of ethnic backgrounds to create a familiar and welcoming background for clients and to provide appropriate role models
- Offering a real understanding and a commitment to learning about people’s differing cultures
- Acknowledging the impact of migration, racism, etc. on clients’ emotional well-being
- Recognising that many of our clients will not respond well to a completely non- directive method and so providing, where appropriate, a more structural approach to the counselling, with psycho-educational input and information sharing
- Understanding external social pressures that clients from BME communities can suffer
- Recognising that emotional distress is often tied up with practical problems and therefore making use of a team of cross-cultural support volunteers to assist with these difficulties
- Viewing the client in a holistic way: mind, body and spirit; and acknowledging that they are part of a collective community
- In recognition that many people have complex social and practical needs as well as emotional needs we have initiated a project where specially trained and culturally sensitive volunteer support workers provide practical support to clients with form filling, attending appointments, attending professional appointments, etc.
Mothertongue is committed to developing opportunities for a greater number of people from black and minority ethnic (BME) communities to take on professional roles in health and social care. Whilst not a campaigning organisation, Mothertongue has an excellent working relationship with local MPs and the charity has been successful in starting to influence change for its client group.
