Counselors working with the culturally different need to:

1. Be aware of how sociopolitical forces have impacted the client
2. Understand culture, class, and language factors as barriers to effective therapeutic intervention
3. Examine how expertness, trustworthiness, and lack of similarities influences the minority client's receptivity
4. Emphasize world views and cultural identity in the counseling process
5. Understand culture bound and communication style differences among various racial groups
6. Carefully examine one's own racial biases and attitudes

Four conditions that may arise when counseling a person from a different culture:
- Condition I - Appropriate Process-Appropriate Goals
- Condition II - Appropriate Process-Inappropriate Goals
- Condition Ill - Inappropriate Process-Appropriate Goals
- Condition IV - Inappropriate Process-Inappropriate Goals

Three levels of counseling are involved in the conditional process:
1. Pre-entry level
2. Entry level
3. Outcome level

4. Condition I - the client is exposed to a counseling process that is consistent with his/or her values, life experiences, and culturally conditioned way of responding. Example: The counselor may actually teach the client specific skills as well as giving advice and information. The technique of teaching is not necessarily seen as part of the traditional counseling process.

5. Condition II - the counselor may choose a specific counseling strategy that is compatible with the client's life experiences, but the goals are questionable. Example: An approach to a problem stresses observable behaviors and provides a systematic, precise, and structured approach to the problem. This may work and is in line with the client's expectations and beliefs. However, control and behavioral objectives may be some form of imposed value and belief that the counselor is projecting toward the client. The client may not be able to function under these conditions in a real life setting.

6. Condition III - the counselor tends to use inappropriate strategies when working with the culturally different client. Many times, the process is antagonistic to the values of the client and forces them to violate some basic personal value. The goals are appropriate, but the client is destined to fail because the process is incompatible with personal values. Example: Caucasians are concerned with controlling and mastering the physical world. The more nature is controlled, the better. Native Americans are taught the principle of non-interference. The manipulation and coercion associated with the Caucasian concept is thought of as rude, ill-mannered, and hostile.

7. Condition IV - the approach chosen by the counselor is clearly inappropriate in terms of technique and goals; this most generally leads to early termination of therapy. Example: Vietnamese clients may come in seeking information about vocational skills and may not be willing to share intimately. For the Vietnamese client, sharing is reserved for the closest of friends. The counselor may determine that the request is related to deeper psychological concerns. This may well be true, but the application of techniques geared toward these concerns may be viewed by the client as inappropriate; as a result, the client may terminate any lines of communication with the counselor.