Multicultural Counseling in Cultural Perspective Indonesia
Sofwan Adiputra and Mujiyati Mujiyati
Department of Education Psychology and Guidance, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Bandung, Indonesia
Keywords: Multicultural Counseling, Ethic Culture, Emic Culture.
Abstract: Multiculturalism concept comes from the desire to have similarity and confession among each culture in
Indonesia, with the understanding that no tribe is better than other tribes. It is the root of the nation unifying
motto of Bhinneka Tunggal Ika. A concept of cultural equality in Indonesia can be introduced to society
through education, which can be implemented into counseling programs in the School. The implementation
of multicultural counseling is expected to facilitate individuals to be a responsible person for themselves,
society, and God. The application of multicultural counseling is divided into two perspectives, the first is
viewing culture from a universal perspective (ethics). This perspective emphasizes that the most basic element
of counseling is interpersonal relationships and all counseling is multicultural counseling so there is no need
for theory and technique in counseling. The second perspective is viewing culture in the perspective of
uniqueness (emic). This perspective sees the need for a collaboration between current theories and techniques
on the unique values of Indonesian culture. The direction of multicultural counseling development to
Indonesia will make the culture as the basis in an effort to build an interpersonal relationship between
counselor and counselee.
1 INTRODUCTION
Indonesia is a multicultural archipelago country, it can be
known from the reality of a pluralistic Indonesian society.
The plurality of Indonesians is evident from the fact that
Indonesia is spread over an archipelago of 13,667 islands
(though not entirely inhabited), divided into 358 ethnic
groups and 200 sub-tribes, have various religions and
beliefs according to statistics: Islam 88.1%, Christian and
Catholic 7.89%, Hindu 2.5%, Buddhist 1% and others
1%, and have a history of cultural mixing in various
cultural influences, ranging from original Indonesian
culture, Hindu, Muslim, Christian and modern Western
cultures (Irhandayaningsih, 2012).
Diversity causes the counselor requires a deep
understanding in communicating and interacting with the
counselee, both between different cultures (between
groups) and within the same culture (within group). It also
occurred in the implementation of counseling, culture
becomes antecedent event that being belief for the
counselee so to understand the counselee thoroughly need
to understand the counselee’s culture. Culture is the blood
that flows in the body, which we cannot choose, it is
attached to the individual and formed from interaction
with the family or the environment.
In the scholarship context, culture lies in the
normative domain that can be used to facilitate and bring
people to develop from what they are to what they have to
be (Kartadinata, 2011). Culture can be used as a tool that
can be used to make individuals can behave according to
their dignity as human beings so that they are expected to
be personally responsible to themselves, society, and God.
The emergence of multiculturalism is based on the
need for recognition of cultural diversity, which
became the reality of the Indonesian nation.
Multiculturalism as a unifying ideology in the
recognition of human equality. The multiculturalism
context is a concept that legitimizes cultural diversity
with the principle of legality and recognition on
different cultural differences (Irhandayaningsih,
2012). Multiculturalism provides meaningful
similarities and acknowledgments among each
culture in Indonesia, with the understanding that no
tribe is better than other tribes.
Basically, multiculturalism includes ideas, views,
policies, attitudes, and actions of a plural society to
become the values of society. The value that aims to
develop the same spirit of nationalism in maintaining
pluralism is the multicultural core in Indonesia
(Irhandayaningsih, 2012). Multicultural is very
appropriate to be a reference in Indonesia due to the
544
Adiputra, S. and Mujiyati, M.
Multicultural Counseling in Cultural Perspective Indonesia.
In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Educational Sciences (ICES 2017) - Volume 1, pages 544-549
ISBN: 978-989-758-314-8
Copyright © 2018 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved

fact that understanding of equality and recognition
can be used as a unifying the plural nation. One of the
logos that shows to special multicultural Indonesia,
Bhinneka Tunggal Ika (different but still one).
In culture, multiculturalism is an ideology and a
tool in improving humanity in the concept of human
life equality, while culture is a guideline of human life
(Suparlan, 2002). In every culture, there is a
normative value that aims to bring individuals to be
better. It can be a unifying tool of any cultural
differences, for example, all tribes teach people to
behave well, and this can be unified in multicultural
because although the concept of ethnicity is different
the value normative can be used as a unifying tool.
In the realm of counseling, culture is an
inseparable part, inherent in the individual. Culture is
built together between individuals and their
environment, so culture influences individuals and
individuals influence cultural development. Every
individual has a culture contained within himself that
is shaped by his developmental environment. So in
the context of counseling in Indonesia, will have
uniqueness in every counseling process because it
contains the values of Indonesian culture. To the
extent of the counseling process in Indonesia is a
study material that needs to be developed to obtain
the results of maximum counseling. In its application,
cultural values should be generalizable to be
concluded and made an approach in counseling
appropriate to the local culture. This understanding is
the basis for the development of multicultural
counseling theory.
2 CULTURE IN
MULTICULTURAL
COUNSELING
Basically, culture is a tool of human instruments used
to overcome the problems faced in its environment.
In addition, culture is a system of objects, activities,
and attitudes in which each part is a tool to achieve
goals (Turner, 2007). Cultural content is focused on
the knowledge of beliefs that can be learned and
acquired regarding art, morals, customs, and habits.
The cultural perspective in psychosocial view is
transmitted socially through interpersonal interaction,
not through biological inheritance (Wang, 2015).
Family and the environment shape the individual
culture.
Multicultural counseling is the fourth power in the
counseling approach. It completes the three major
powers in other counseling approaches, namely
psychodynamic, behavioral, and humanistic
(Pedersen 1991) which evolved in several different
understandings and perceptions. The center of the
difference lies in differences in cultural significance
(Daya, 2001). Culture can be interpreted narrowly and
broader, in accordance with the meaning of each
individual. This difference of meaning leads to
several different approaches to multicultural
counseling.
Culture can be defined into two concepts, the first
the definition of culture widely and the second in the
narrow sense. In a broad sense, culture can be
interpreted as a frame of reference that resides within
the self and the environment. Culture includes norms
of values, beliefs, attitudes, behaviors, and traditions
that connect between individuals of the group. It may
also include demographic variables, status variables,
affiliations, and ethnographic variables (Pedersen,
1991). In addition, it may also include racial or ethnic
groups, gender, age, religion, economic status,
nationality, physical capacity, or gender (Corey,
Corey and Callanan, 2011).
The widespread significance of the culture
produces an understanding that "we are all
multicultural individuals" (Arredondo et al, 1996;
Daya, 2001), and "everyone is a multicultural person"
(Arredondo et al, 1996). This happens because in
counseling process on counselor and counselee tend
to have a different culture. So there is no special form
of multicultural counseling. This broad definition
raises the question of multicultural standing in
counseling, as there will be an understanding that
there is no need for multicultural counseling because
all counseling is a multicultural counseling.
While culture in the narrow sense is defined as a
variable that distinguishes ethnicity or nationality
(Pedersen, 1991). In this perspective, different
cultures are considered different if individuals come
from different ethnicities or nations, so the
multicultural counseling process is a counseling that
occurs between counselors and counselors who are
ethnically or culturally different.
The impact of different cultural meanings results
in two different perspectives on multicultural
counseling (Patterson, 2004). The first perspective
provides an understanding that multicultural
counseling is an effort to help counselees who differ
from one another in ethnic, racial, cultural, religious,
and so on. Cultural differences can have different
meanings depending on the perspective. Trends that
emphasize cultural differences based on cultural
criteria such as race, ethnicity, religion,
socioeconomic, gender, etc. are called emic
(uniqueness), while emphasizing the similarity of
Multicultural Counseling in Cultural Perspective Indonesia
545

cultural criteria such as race, ethnicity, religion,
socioeconomic, gender and so-called ethics
(universal) (Puukari and Launikari, 2005). Both of
these cultural approaches both view that in
multicultural counseling is an effort in assisting
counselors who do the counselor by understanding the
counseling as a whole, including the culture of the
counselee.
So culturally contextual development of culture
resides in two cultural perspectives namely ethics and
emic (Kartadinata, 2011). Emic issues and cultural
diversity have implications for the importance of
understanding behavior and development that exist in
human beings in the context of the unique culture of
each individual. Each individual has a unique culture
that must be understood by the counselor. While
ethical issues indicate behavior and development in
the universal and normative context that must be
realized in human life based on the essence and the
essential values of human life.
Some experts claim that multicultural counseling
is a new paradigm in counseling. A paradigm must
have a focal point to be recognized as something
scientific. Multicultural counseling is faced with the
problem of looking for a scientific focal point
regarding the multicultural counseling perspective.
Some scholars believe that multicultural counseling
must be approached from a universal perspective,
while others think that a unique cultural perspective
(emic) is the focal point of multicultural counseling
(Daya, 2001). But it would be better when the
counselor can balance emic and ethics, between
uniqueness and universality in order to create a
harmony of life.
Multicultural counseling is a systematic effort to
address cultural diversity in counseling, in addition,
multicultural counseling is considered the latest
approach to theoretical counseling (Puukari and
Launikari, 2005: 30). In multicultural counseling, it
implies that human existence cannot be understood
without attempting to compare individuals with larger
members of society.
2.1 Ethical Position in Multicultural
Counseling
The multicultural counseling perspective as a theory
is not without criticism, Patterson (1996) emphasizes
that the use of techniques in multicultural counseling
can obscure the counselor's competencies. The
understanding that technique is more important than
the quality of counselors is false. Application of the
technique becomes dangerous if done without any
effort of developing a good relationship to the
counselee. So in the ethical view of multicultural
counseling, special techniques, approaches or
theories about the implementation of multicultural
counseling are not necessary because counselors and
counselors must have different cultural values and all
counseling is multicultural counseling.
Multiculturalism in this perspective emphasizes
that the most basic element of counseling is
interpersonal relations (Patterson, 1996). They
consider the emphasis on counseling techniques in a
cultural perspective at risk of obscuring the counselee
characteristics. Counselors are feared to fail in
developing relationships with counselors (Daya,
2001).
When culture is broadly defined, everyone is
considered to hold a unique cultural composition
which means that all forms of counseling relations are
defined as multicultural. Cultures are internalized in
understanding diverse individuals. The ethical
position emphasizes the internalized culture with the
understanding that everyone has a unique culture. As
a result, it is believed that everyone has different
counseling needs (Daya, 2001).
2.2 Emic Position in Multicultural
Counseling
Emic views that counseling services can be effective,
then the counselor should have an understanding of
the cultural characteristics of the counselee (Daya,
2001). Several research findings suggest that
counselors need to improve their knowledge of
particular cultures and techniques about the counselee
culture. Knowledge of the counselee's culture enables
counselors to design treatments that fit the culture of
the counselee.
The perspective of a culture based on emic views
that it is necessary to understand outstanding
counseling theories such as behavioral,
psychodynamic, humanistic to be adapted in the
cultural frame of the counselee (Nwachuku and Ivey,
1991). Counseling theories will become more
complex if theoretical studies are structured from a
cultural point of view. This step has been done by
Nwachuku and Ivey in developing a model to
generate the theory of multicultural counseling.
The emic approach to multicultural counseling
emphasizes that the best theories and techniques for
assisting diverse cultural counselors are theories and
techniques developed from a particular cultural
framework. The development of these theories can be
done through the development of cultural systems
that are collaborated with the values of the theory of
counseling (Daya, 2001). So that the existing theories
ICES 2017 - 1st International Conference on Educational Sciences
546

are expected to be elaborated with each culture so that
it will be more effectively used in certain cultural
contexts, for example, the application of behavioral
therapy counseling approach in the context of Islamic
culture will produce a new theory called counseling
behavioral therapy for Muslims.
3 COMPETENCE OF
MULTICULTURAL
COUNSELORS
Multicultural competence is a competency that must
be mastered by every individual, both as a person and
a professional. In the context of the counselor
profession, multicultural competence is presented in
a variety of intervention strategies to help others
develop multicultural competencies. The counselor
needs to understand the essential things of counselor's
cultural life, in order to develop long-term
multicultural behavior to build a harmonious life in
diversity. This should be a counselor mission in
facilitating student development (Kartadinata, 2016).
Multicultural counseling aims to assist the
counselee in accordance with the life experience and
cultural values of the client, balancing the importance
of individualism and collectivism in the assessment,
diagnosis, and problem-solving of the counselee (Sue
and Sue, 2008). The emphasis of the counselor's
competence is on individual change. However, if only
individuals change and system do not change then the
status quo will remain in the counselee (Arredondo
1996) so that in multicultural counseling leads to a
thorough change towards the counselees' view.
Arredondo (1996) and Corey, Corey and Callanan
(2011) describes the competencies that counselors
must have in multicultural counseling into three
aspects: the counselor's awareness of the value and
bias of the self-culture, understand worldview of
counselee, develop appropriate intervention
strategies and techniques according to the culture of
the counselee. The description of the three aspects is
done by looking at three indicators, namely attitudes
and beliefs, knowledge, and skills. While Sue and Sue
(2008) and Kardinata (2016) divide the indicators of
multicultural counseling competence into three
indicators namely awareness, knowledge, and skills.
In these experts' view, the first multicultural
counselor is required to have the attitudes, beliefs,
and awareness of the cultural values that the
counselor has within him. It is important, in the light
of that understanding, it avoids the ambiguity
between the counselor's values and the value
counselee, so the counseling process will not affect
each other. Second, counselors should have
competencies that can be used to understand the
counselee's point of view. This competence can be a
deep understanding of the various cultures. The more
counselors understand the differences between
cultures that exist in the environment the easier the
counselor understands the problem counselee. Third,
the counselor is expected to have skills in developing
appropriate intervention strategies and techniques
according to the culture of the counselee. This
strategy of intervention and counseling techniques is
a tool in changing counselee behavior, so that the
more techniques and interventions that the counselor
understands, the counselor is easier to elaborate those
skills in helping the counselee.
4 THE DIRECTION OF
MULTICULTURAL
COUNSELING IN INDONESIA
Guidance and counseling in Indonesia, part of the
science of education contain many philosophical
issues. The issue itself never changes, but the point of
view or perspective on the issue may change
(Kartadinata, 2011) so that the development of
existing scholarship changes in line with the present
perspective. The development of an understanding of
the multicultural in ethical and emic perspectives is
actually not changing, but the way of view is changed
so that requires a deeper assessment and
development.
The current counseling theory emerges from a
process that does not promote cultural elements, so it
seems necessary to develop deeper scholarship
related to cultural standing in counseling. One thing
must be understood that rarely a scientific perspective
starts from something that is considered to be
prevalent in the scientific community, the results of
research incorporate it into conceptual boxes without
an arbitrary element (Kuhn, 2012), so that the
development of multicultural counseling science
finally it is not impossible to find the focal point of
the study.
The direction of multicultural counseling in
Indonesia is related to two things, the first
development of multicultural counseling in the
perspective of emic. In this perspective, we try to
develop multicultural counseling approach through
tribal approaches in Indonesia. For example the
development of multicultural counseling in Lampung
culture which has an emic philosophy of life Nengah
Multicultural Counseling in Cultural Perspective Indonesia
547

Nyampur (principle of togetherness). This philosophy
is part of customs and uniqueness in Lampung tribe
so that the end of this research will produce a new
approach in the form of multicultural counseling
theory Nengah Nyampur, as the basic theory in
helping the counselee who has Lampung culture.
Second, trying to develop multicultural
counseling in an ethical perspective. In this
perspective will develop an Indonesian multicultural
counseling approach by making Indonesian culture as
the basis for building interpersonal relationship
between counselor and counselee. The focus of
research is how to build rapport in counseling with
the perspective of Indonesian society, so that classical
issues are related to sitting between men and women,
the situation of counseling, ethics of speech, polite
boundaries between counselors and counselors, etc.
that related to the counseling process can be adapted
to the cultural customs of Indonesian society. This
research will be used as a reference in the
implementation of counseling in Indonesia.
5 CONCLUSIONS
Indonesia is a multicultural country that upholds the
principle of equality of cultural differences in
Indonesia. The existing pluralism is united through
the normative values contained in the culture so that
no part of the culture has a higher value than other
cultures. Efforts that can be done to the community
about cultural equality in Indonesia is through
education which can be implemented into counseling
programs in the School.
Through counseling is expected to develop a
counselee's understanding of the fact that the counsel
lives in a multicultural society, so the counselee can
develop multicultural behavior. In its application
multicultural counseling is divided into two
perspectives, the first viewing the culture from a
universal perspective (ethics), the second viewing the
culture in the perspective of uniqueness (emic) thus it
requires research that applies the perspective of emic
in Indonesia which apply the uniqueness of tribes,
customs and research perspectives ethics in
Indonesian society. Then applying Indonesian value
into counselling.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The writers would like to express their gratitude to the
Indonesian government especially the Indonesian
Directorate General of Higher Education (DIKTI),
Indonesia Endowment Fund for Education (LPDP) in
funding this research and Indonesia University of
Education (UPI) for permitting them to conduct a
development research in education field.
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