Cultural diversity and the challenges it poses for cross-cultural communication and interaction are vital components of the human experience. In an ever-changing world, one of the stable elements of human interaction is culture a term that has been defined by Draguns (1975) as the invisible, but crucial component of the counseling process. As more and more Hispanic peoples are making Canada their home, the need for helping specific cultural groups calls for specific abilities and strategies that counselors must posses to be effective helpers. This article reviews Atkinson's, Thompson's, and Grant's (1993) Three-dimensional model for counseling racial/ethnic minorities and proposes it as a useful counseling tool for Hispanic clients. Some general considerations for counseling Hispanics will also be examined.

According to Triandis (1972) "…culture cuts deeply into the person's inner life even shaping self-experience" (p.14). As a result, unique individual experience and commonalties in personality across cultures bound the scope of Cross-cultural Counseling. In the culturally diverse settings of the United States and Canada as well as those of many other countries, the principles of Cross-cultural Counseling are applicable to minority groups defined on the basis of visible racial features, historical heritage, language background, history of past discrimination, oppression, and exclusion.

Hispanics are one of the fastest growing cultural minorities in North America with one of the highest rates of birth and immigration in the last fifteen years. In the United States, the percentage of Hispanics is 11.1% corresponding to 29.7 million (according to the last census); in Canada, the number of Hispanics is 176,975 which is the 1.73% of the total population living mostly in the provinces of British Columbia and Alberta. Consequently, it is essential that therapists and counselors become more competent and aware of the necessities of this fast growing minority group and the existing differences among the variety of Hispanics. The term Hispanics has been given to a group of people formed by very diverse groups which are multicultural in their attitudes, racial background (white, First Nations & Black), and values. However, since language is an important variable that transmits culture, the Latin influence on Hispanic people transcends the racial background. In North America, Hispanics emigrated at some point mostly from the following locations: Cuba, Puerto Rico, Mexico, and Central America. In recent years, refugees from Chile have made their home in Canada. According to Casas and Vasquez(1996) "race is a very important variable [for Hispanics]...and has a major impact on the life experiences and stressors [or].... the way that they are treated or accepted by non-Hispanic Whites" (p. 150).

Atkinson's, Thompson's, and Grant's (1993) multi-modal approach to counselling describes eight alternative roles that involve the counselor more actively in the client's life experiences than the conventional roles. These roles may be utilized independently or jointly depending on the problems, situation, and/ or goals of the client. Although they might overlap at some point due to their nature, each of the roles includes some components that make them unique. The model consists of three components or variables (dimensions) that exist in a continuum and need to be considered when working with minorities: a) the goal of the counseling situation (preventive to remedial); b) the locus of problem etiology (internal to external); and c) the client's level of acculturation (low to high).

According to Padilla (1980), acculturation is a central variable in the delivery of counseling services to Hispanics; it encompasses a wide continuum, including assimilation, or the adjustment made to become more mainstream oriented. Some of the factors related to acculturation among Hispanics, include:

Atkinson et al (1993) identified eight therapist roles to help clients in different ways depending on the interdependent variables and situations: Advocate, Advisor, Facilitator of Indigenous support systems, Facilitator of Indigenous healing systems, Consultant, Change Agent, Counselor, and/or Psychotherapist. The role(s) assumed by the counselor will shift based on the three dimensions described above. Figure 1 illustrates how the role(s) would unfold according to the juxtaposition of the dimensions.

Adviser

The counselor acts as an adviser when the level of acculturation in the client is low, the problem is external and the goal of the treatment is prevention. The counselor tries to prevent arising difficulties by advising the clients about the problems they or their families might encounter. The counselor initiates discussion of a potential developing problem and advises the client about some alternatives or options to prevent it from emerging. This approach is utilized mostly with new immigrants who might need some advice concerning the difficulties they might face in the new country. This role of the counselor serves those clients who want to know what to do to reduce the impact of potential discrimination and/or negative situations.

The counselor serves as an advocate when the level of acculturation in the client is low, the problem is external and the goal of the treatment is remediation. As an advocate, the counselor speaks on behalf of the client who could be one individual or a group of people experiencing oppressive conditions. In this role, the counselor represents the individual or the group and must be willing to pursue alternative courses with or for the client. In this role, the counselor has the responsibility to make certain that the person benefits from the diverse resources of the majority culture without losing what is unique and valued in his/her own culture.

In schools, the role of the counselor as advocate, has gained strength among ethnically diverse schools. The National Coalition of Advocates for Students (1988) developed a number of recommendations for advocacy on behalf of immigrant students. School counselors are urged to advocate that their school personnel understands the right to free education for immigrant children and ensure that immigrant students experience a school environment free of victimization, harassment, and intergroup conflict.

This role is helpful when the level of acculturation of the client is low, the problem is internal and the goal of the counseling situation is preventive. Counseling can be thought of as a social support system to help prevent and remediate problems; because support systems are more acceptable within many cultures than is professional counseling or therapy, it is likely that clients will trust the counselor who assumes the role of facilitator of Indigenous support. Some of these support systems are ethnic churches, community centers, family networks, and the like. The counselor is invited to strongly acknowledge the importance of the support systems and encourage the diverse ethnic or governmental organizations to provide the services needed by the community. One other way in which counselors might facilitate the use of indigenous support systems is by referring clients to them.

If the client's level of acculturation is low, the problem is internal and the goal of the therapy is remediation, the counselor assumes this role. It is the counselor's duty to honour, acknowledge, and respect the client's belief system. Every culture has different effective means to deal with and solve problems once they develop; the effectiveness of such means lies mostly in the members' positive beliefs about the methods. Thus, individuals who believe in certain healing procedures are likely to comply with them. By undertaking this role the counselor accepts that healing methods from the client's culture are more likely to be effective than conventional treatments or strategies. When the latter is advised to the client, the result might be a divergence between the need and the help provided, loss of credibility in the counselor, and finally, the client's disengagement from counseling.

Hansen, Himes, and Meier (1990) have defined consultation as an association that involves a collegial relationship between the consultant and the consultee (client) who work together to affect the behavior of a third party. In this role, the counselor works in situations trying to prevent problems from developing; counselors can help minorities to learn skills needed to interact successfully with the dominant society. Because values and the potential to respond in assertive ways differ from one culture to another, minority groups such as Hispanics might struggle with the inability to perform skills valued by the dominant culture which may place them at a disadvantage for coping with the majority culture. Thus, it is advised that the counselor be able to teach basic coping and social skills to minority group clients. One suggested way for doing this (La Framboise and Rowe (1993) is by modeling in small groups since this is a procedure that involves a different way of transmitting knowledge which –albeit being "indirect"- is effective.

Egan (1985) describes an change agent as "anyone who plays an important part in designing, redesigning, running, renewing, or improving any system, subsystem, or program" (p.12). In this role, the counselor attempts to change the social environment that oppresses racial/ethnic minorities. The counselor helps the client identify the external resources of his or her own problem as well as methods of resolving the problem. They develop a strategy for eliminating or reducing the effect of oppression on the client's life. Oftentimes, facilitating the formation of racial/ ethnic minority political groups does this. The counselor serving as a change agent assumes a low-visibility profile, often finding it useful to mobilize other influential persons in the offending institution so as to bring about change. Lewis and Lewis (1977) identified four ways in which a counselor can act as a change agent: the counselor can assess community needs, coordinate activities ands resources, provide training in skill-building, and advocate change. Ponterotto (1987) described a multi-modal approach for counseling Mexican-Americans and this model includes a change agent component that may be applicable to other ethnic groups. This role as described by Ponterotto (1987), involves identification of the social, environmental, and institutional factors that are oppressing the client but that are external to his/her control.

The helper follows the conventional counseling role when the client has a high acculturation level, the problem is internal and the goal is the prevention of problems. The main role of the counselor is to help the client make decisions by listing alternatives considering their consequences, pondering the probability of each alternative, and choosing or deciding. It is important that the counselor be aware of his/her own biases that might influence the client’s decision for choosing a specific alternative or option.

The facilitator serves as a psychotherapist when the level of acculturation of the client is high, the problem is internal and a situation wants to be resolved. Two important elements that the counselor must consider when taking on this role, is to maintain credibility as a counselor and to offer clients a benefit from therapy as a soon as possible. Sue and Zane (1987) suggest that three factors are significantly related to maintaining the counselor’s credibility: a) the conceptualization of a client’s problem must be congruent with the client’s belief system; b) the counselor’s required responses and suggestions from and to the client must be culturally compatible and acceptable; c) the definition of goals must be the same for both the counselor and the client. By giving, the counselor reinforces his/her credibility. Giving could be described as a meaningful gain in therapy; it is (giving) reassurance, hope, faith, skills acquisition, a coping perspective, and anxiety reduction alternatives among other.

There are some professional and personal attitudes and beliefs that affect the process of counseling that have negatively impacted minorities. Cultural history and experience of oppression causes changes in behavior, which might have different meaning for counselor and client. To avoid stereotypes and biases, the counselor must seek specific information regarding the client such as demographic information (cultural background), interpersonal training (what kinds of experience does the client have), and personal experiences (racism/exclusion or acceptance).

As a result of stereotyping and biases, Hispanics in particular have been diagnosed more often with problems, yet, interestingly, have received less time with the helper than Whites. In general, according to Wampold, Casas, & Atkinson (1981), negative stereotypes "most frequently ascribed to Hispanics....[are]...lazy, dumb, dirty, overemotional or, when different from the majority (passive, cooperative, present-time oriented)...." (pp. 159-160). Some general assumptions may include the following:

Hispanics consider that:

According to Pedersen et al. (1996), the counseling process should focus on the client's expectations, preferences, and attitudes; therefore they suggest taking into consideration the following approaches:

According to Vanier (l998) "…love and respect, like fear and prejudice, are legacies passed on from one person to another. The movement from seeking approval to taking responsibility, to being open to those who are different, implies a shift of consciousness" (pp.81-82). The shift for counsellors is viewing cultural identity as a major element of a person's behaviour. Thus, being sensitive and understanding the cultural background of clients is imperative. As a cultural group that is both diverse racially, yet shares a common language, Hispanics are in a very unique situation. In fact, Hispanic is one the fastest growing populations in North America, particularly in the USA, but also in British Columbia.

The research on Cross-cultural counseling is extensive and suggests diverse modes and models for counseling minorities. Atkinson's, Thompson's, and Grant's (1993) Three-dimensional model for counseling racial/ethnic minorities is one of the most useful paradigms for counsellors working with Hispanic clients. However, it is the helper's judgement and responsibility to choose the procedure(s) that will bring forth the most benefit and positive outcomes for the client. It is in our willingness to be accepting of others that we, as helpers, will begin to understand other people's needs and hopes without forgetting that respect, openness, and common sense will always be crucial components of what constitutes a good counseling practice.