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Multicultural Counseling Beyond the Relationship: Expanding the Repertoire with Techniques

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Multicultural counseling approaches variously focus on the counseling relationship. Relatively few discuss clinical techniques and strategies to any significant extent. This article explores enhancing multicultural counseling by offering an array of techniques and strategies based on addressing oppression and increasing psychological freedom. Techniques offered seek to internally free a person cognitively, affectively, and systemically using the Precursors Model of Change (Hanna, 2002).The goal is to help set a person free from oppressive, discriminatory systems and individuals. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]

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Keywords: oppression, multicultural, techniques, diversity, psychotherapy

For well over 30 years, the counseling field has been increasingly focused on the importance of developing the therapeutic relationship between counselors and members of oppressed groups and diverse cultures (e.g., Bemak & Hanna, 1998; Robinson & Ginter, 1999; Sue, 1981; Sue & Sue, 2012). Largely absent from the multicultural and diversity literature is a discussion of actual techniques and strategies designed to reduce the impact of psychological oppression and the alienation that often comes with being a member of an oppressed group or otherwise oppressed. A search through the multicultural and diversity literature revealed little in the way of techniques and strategies aimed at addressing oppression. A possible approach for developing such techniques might be by way of increasing clients' sense of internal freedom and transforming dysfunctional lifestyles that have come about because of having been exposed to a harmful or oppressive set of circumstances or individuals. This approach would have the goal of freedom and not merely adjustment or adaptation to a harmful oppressive environment.

Early writers in the field of multicultural counseling, such as Helms (1990, 1994), Vontress (1974), and Sue (1981), suggested important approaches for working with members of different cultures and oppressed groups, primarily in the context of properly and effectively establishing the therapeutic relationship. In addition, multicultural counseling also seems to have focused on such issues as racial identity (Helms, 1990; Helms & Carter, 1990) and on the multicultural competence of the counselor (Pope-Davis, Reynolds, Dings, & Nielson, 1995). Much attention also continues to be devoted to specific populations.

For example, one population that is garnering increasing attention is immigrants. There are an estimated 38.2 million documented and undocumented immigrants living in the United States (Camarota, 2010), many of whom feel oppressed. According to Hoefer, Rytina, and Baker (2011), there are 11.5 million undocumented immigrants in the United States. As the immigration numbers climb yearly, counselors are faced with new demands and problems while working with these groups. The immigrant population may present with complications, such as fear of institutions such as clinics, hospitals, or schools (Casas, 2010). They may also have a fear of authorities such as police, counselors, school administrators, psychologists, and social workers. They may also be ashamed of what they perceive as a lack of knowledge or be afraid of misdiagnosis due to cultural differences, counselor biases, and prejudices within the general population (Casas, 2010). This is but one population, and in the 21st century, the counseling profession is poised to make great strides in many areas of counseling (Bemak & Hanna, 1998).

Although there is still much work to be done, multicultural and diversity counseling and its various perspectives and mandates seem to have acquired sufficient momentum to allow an emphasis that may now be placed on addressing and alleviating both the internal and external stressors that reduce the well-being and freedom of oppressed persons. Feminist therapy has recognized this need for many years (Evans, Kincade, & Seem, 2010; Goodman et al., 2004) and has provided some strategies, but we believe that there is a need for additional applications. It would seem that the counseling field has reached the point where multicultural and diversity counseling is indispensable in establishing therapeutic working relationships with diverse clients. Perhaps the next step may be along the lines of developing appropriate and corresponding counseling techniques that, in consonance with the relationship, counter the psychological effects of oppression in the form of racism, sexism, homophobia, and xenophobia, among other forms of intolerance.

In summary, there are five primary points that set the stage for this article. The first is that the profession has progressed to the point where the importance of multicultural and diversity counseling is both understood and widely acknowledged including the increase of knowledge and awareness when working with diverse populations. Second, the profession has progressed in terms of developing relationships with diverse clients. Third, the profession is lacking specific techniques to be used to help clients to heal from oppression. Fourth, techniques that promote psychological freedom and liberation are, perhaps, best for accomplishing this healing. Fifth, specific techniques are offered that promote freedom and liberation in a multicultural context.

Counseling toward freedom is applicable to any person or group seeking to alleviate the negative effects of being forced to live their life under the harmful demands or selfish control of an oppressive individual or group. Setting clients free through establishing the modalities of freedom is a pathway to achieving authenticity and living life, as much as possible, according to one's own terms and toward the benefit of others.

In the remainder of this article, we first attempt to further define and elaborate on the concept of freedom. Second, we discuss the concept of therapeutic change in relation to psychological oppression and freedom. Third, the Precursors Model of Change (Hanna, 2002) is described and explored in the context of multicultural counseling and enhancing psychological freedom. Finally, we offer empirically informed techniques for producing increased internal freedom for members of oppressed groups.

Freedom and Liberation in Counseling

In view of the approach proposed in this article toward multicultural and diversity counseling, it is important to understand the use of the term freedom in the context of this article. Freedom can thus be defined as a psychological state wherein a person is not inhibited by emotional pain, obsessive thoughts, or compulsions. Freedom involves the mastery to affect, alter, soothe, or alleviate individuals' unwanted mental and emotional conditions; to augment their range of choices; and to amplify positive feelings. Mastery includes acquiring skills necessary to negotiate, reduce, or enhance conditions in the mind, individual, system, or society. Moreover, this definition of freedom necessitates taking responsibility (see Sartre, 1943/1992) for said states and conditions without blame, burden, or duty to act but with a willingness to respond, guide, influence, or manage. Such responsibility and freedom include tolerance and empathy for others, as opposed to restrictions imposed by prejudice, callousness, or obliviousness (Hanna, 2011, p. 365).

Freedom can be said to be present in four modalities: freedom from, freedom to, freedom with, and freedom for (Weiss, 1958). These modalities delineate and describe the full range in which freedom manifests in counseling (Hanna, 2011), ranging from relief from symptoms and circumstances (freedom from), increased choices (freedom to), increased tolerance and compassion for others (freedom with), and helping others to be free (freedom for). Liberation, on the other hand, is primarily defined in the context of freedom from, as in the case of liberation from oppression or some form of confinement or imprisonment. Freedom, although clearly related to liberation, is more inclusive of the other three modalities of freedom. Although the term liberation certainly is important in describing the needs of oppressed individuals (see Hanna, Tally, & Guindon, 2000; Ivey, 1995), we prefer the use of the term freedom in that it takes into account a broader range of modalities, including a greater degree of freedom to, freedom with, and freedom for.

In the past 20 or so years, there has been an emphasis in the counseling literature on psychological freedom from social oppression (Hanna et al., 2000; Ivey, 1995; Ivey & Collins, 2003; Myers, 1993; Robinson, 1999; see also Asante, 1987). Oppression was defined by Hanna et al. (2000) as occurring in two modalities. The first is oppression by harmful force, or by the threat of force, that is designed to make persons do something against their will or their well-being. This can be any unwanted harmful influence, material or psychological. The second mode of oppression is by deprivation, in which such vitals as opportunity, education, human dignity, rights, or lifestyle, not to mention food, shelter, or clothing, are denied to an individual or group. Neglect is a form of oppression by deprivation. Prolonged oppression by force and/or deprivation can lead to the formation of an externally derived worldview and, consequently, opposition in the attempt to follow one's own goals and purposes (Freire, 1970).

Freedom from oppression, in the psychological sense, can often be difficult to achieve, particularly when the oppression is historically and currently shared by a community or group and passed on through multiple generations prior to the lifetime of the individual seeking emancipation. In spite of that, however, freedom is nonetheless accomplished routinely through many counseling approaches. It is important to note that the entire counseling enterprise, and nearly all of its attendant theories, from cognitive behavioral to existential, can be reframed and oriented around freedom from oppression (Hanna, 2011 ; Hanna et al., 2000).

As we have stated, the primary emphasis of multicultural counseling to date seems to be on developing and sustaining the counseling relationship with persons of differing cultures. There has been little attention devoted to how therapeutic change is to manifest among persons of differing cultures, especially within the context of oppression. Hanna (2002) defined psychotherapeutic change as "a beneficial, positive alteration in thoughts, behaviors, feelings, or interpersonal interaction that leads to improved or more effective coping or functioning and greater satisfaction with one's outer and inner life" (p. 3).

On the basis of this definition of change, therapy that seeks to help a client to merely adjust to an oppressed existence rather than seek to overcome it is insufficient and, according to Ivey (1995), contributes to the further oppression of the individual. Thus, the goal of counseling and therapy might be better described as the attainment of a greater overall degree of freedom (Hanna, 2011) rather than an individual merely adapting, enduring, or adjusting to a system that will bring only further harm to him or her.

*Freedom Through Therapeutic Change

To address this topic, this article offers an approach to multicultural and diversity counseling oriented around the attainment of freedom through techniques and strategies designed to produce a freeing effect and not merely adjustment or adaptation (Hanna et al., 2000). The term freedom in this context is used primarily in the psychological sense. Freedom through counseling and psychotherapy is suggested as a superior alternative to merely advocating adjustment to a society or engaging, willingly or unwillingly, in relationships that continue to be socially, emotionally, and psychologically harmful and oppressive. Psychological freedom also consists of the implementation and establishment of beliefs and their resulting emotions that encourage self-determination, agency, as well as the good of the collective (Hanna, 2011).

In addition to the rehabilitation of psychological functioning damaged by oppression, the attainment of freedom through counseling involves helping the client replace harmful beliefs through an acute awareness of one's own or one's group's existence within a society where social interactions and access to material resources are determined by social and political power structures (Watts, Williams, & Jägers, 2003). These oppressive power structures and the beliefs that sustain them must be understood from within the historical context in which they originated and are maintained. Through the use of a cognitive therapeutic approach to oppression that we present later in this article, members of oppressed groups can work through their emotional difficulties by following Beck's (1976) cognitive model of emotional disorders but with a few modifications and enhancements. Rather than blaming the victim for the origination of self-defeating thoughts, this approach helps individuals work though their emotional issues via the traditional Beck methods while simultaneously helping them ascertain the origins of those beliefs and why it may have been in the interest of the oppressive society or individuals that these beliefs are actively maintained by members of the oppressed group.

The development of a self-determined evaluation of one's emotional well-being seems necessary in order to take action to challenge and change the circumstances that bind the person to the oppressive beliefs and relationships in the first place. This is in contrast to the traditional cognitive approach to therapeutic change, which seeks to modify self-defeating thinking without specifically connecting these beliefs to the oppressive messages that come from and are maintained by the dominant society. We are proposing an approach that may be an enhancement of cognitive therapy and other individually oriented approaches to change. This is an approach that addresses the oppressive environment, whether family, culture, or society, that inflicts self-defeating beliefs on the individuals or group who are its victims.

Constantine, Hage, Kindaichi, and Bryant (2007) pointed out that the counseling profession is developing and moving, and it is imperative that the pursuit of social justice be included in that movement. Social justice is grounded in the notions of liberation and equality among human beings. These tenets can provide the profession with a different perspective on treating and working with clients and communities. The social justice approach to counseling also serves as a basis for advocacy. This is related to the Afrocentric movement (Asante, 1987), which sought to bring freedom and liberation to African Americans without involvement in the oppressive culture that has exploited and mistreated them throughout their history in America.

Constantine et al. (2007) also suggested that the application of the social justice paradigm in therapy would allow counselors and psychologists to more readily promote and implement change at the societal level. Here is where counseling combines with the social justice goal of societal change and includes advocacy as well. Using this approach requires professionals to think outside the proverbial box of the dominant society. In essence, this means that counselors may need to do more advocacy work and respond to specific needs of diverse cultures, people, and situations in the tradition of social justice. In terms of cognitive counseling and therapy, counselors cannot subtly or indirectly blame clients for being victims of oppression, racism, sexism, or other inequities. Instead, counselors must advocate for change in the client as well as advocate for change in society.

*Freedom and the Precursors of Change

It seems that the importance of freedom has been occasionally acknowledged, and there is a tacit process under way that may increase its presence in the field. However, what has been missing is a set of techniques or methods that can be applied with and by oppressed persons so as to achieve freedom and change. It begins by helping clients to recognize and identify the oppressive influences in their lives. Pointing out the oppression in clients' lives is not always conducive to change and, in our experience, can sometimes lead to depression and apathy. However, when freedom occurs, it is akin to a more powerful form of positive change, leading to a radical and deep structural change and transformation of the type referred to as second-order change (Hanna & Ritchie, 1995; Lyddon, 1990). The question is, What are the necessary and sufficient conditions for freedom, and how does it come into being?

The Precursors Model of Change is one answer to this question. It is based on seven empirically validated change factors referred to as precursors (Hanna, 2002; Hanna, Gior- daño, Dupuy, & Puhakka, 1995; Hanna & Ritchie, 1995). We adapted the precursors to this application for the sake of elucidating a freeing approach for oppressed clients, and the model is an underlying or tacit guide for the techniques presented here. The central tenet of the model is that when the seven precursors are absent in a client or group, change is not likely to occur. When an adequate number of the precursors are present, the client will change to that degree, and change will occur as long as any reasonable approach or technique is used. It could be said that the precursors of change, in contrast to defense mechanisms, are actually the offense mechanisms of change. They are both behind and at the forefront of change. The precursors are as follows:

1. A sense of necessity for change. A sense of necessity is a recognized urgency or need, in which current conditions are seen as unsatisfactory and should or must give way to a different set of circumstances. With regard to the freeing of the oppressed, a sense of necessity dawns when a person is no longer willing to be under the yoke of an oppressor, be it an individual, group, or system, or the self-defeating beliefs in his or her own mind.

2. A willingness or readiness to experience anxiety. The willingness to experience anxiety or difficulty is the intent to feel and undergo the discomfort that comes with change. It is the essence of working through an issue, tolerating whatever anxiety, painful emotion, or difficulty is inherent in the process. In working toward freedom, a person must feel the sense of degradation or humiliation that is part of being oppressed so that one can emerge with insight and strength, knowing that one has survived with resilience and dignity. This precursor is the diametric opposite of the defense mechanism of repression.

3. Awareness. Awareness is essentially the condition of knowing that a problem exists and having a good sense of what that entails. Awareness is the opposite of denial. Without it, a person has no idea where to direct his or her resources toward change. Awareness of oppression exposes the mechanisms and methods used by the oppressor so as to avoid pain and suffering. As a by-product, this sharpens one's perception of the oppressor and can lead to a sense of necessity.

4. Confronting the problem. Confronting the problem is the steady, determined application of awareness and is by no means the same. This is the steady and deliberate attending to and observing of anything intimidating, painful, or confusing. It is looking at the problem dead in the face and continuing to look despite the tendency to avoid, act out, or otherwise escape it. There are a host of instances in which persons achieved a degree of freedom through directly confronting their predicament. Examples are Ghandi, Malcolm X, Buddha, and Alexandra David-Néel. A study of examples of liberated persons such as these shows that confronting and dismantling a series of constricting or damaging beliefs are often at the root of the process of freedom. This precursor is the opposite of defenses such as avoidance and projection.

5. Effort or will toward change. Effort or will is the precursor that indicates action engaged and taken to actually solve the problem. It is the actual expending of energy as well as movement taken. It also involves the will, in the sense of commitment and decision to change. In the context of freedom, this translates into the action of releasing oneself from oppressive circumstances. It also translates into social activism and justice. This precursor is the opposite of lethargy or laziness.

6. Hope for change. Hope is the realistic expectation that change will occur. It is not wishing, longing, desiring, or yearning. Hope sees the possibility of change and motivates a person toward it, with a sense of certainty that change can indeed occur. Hope stimulates a person's coping ability and can actually inspire a sense of necessity, confronting the problem, effort, and/or the willingness to experience anxiety (Snyder, 1994). In the case of oppression, a person will seldom make an attempt toward freedom without some hope or sense that any effort expended will not be wasted. Hope is the opposite of despair and includes the concept of self-efficacy (Bandura, 1977) and a positive outlook.

7. Social support for change. Social support consists of confiding and supportive relationships that are dedicated to the well-being of the person. These relationships make the change process much more tolerable and can inspire each of the other precursors. Social support is extremely helpful in moving toward freedom as well, and being a member of a community with others who are also seeking freedom provides encouragement and hope for change. Social justice, in addition to supporting other precursors, is especially helpful here not only in terms of providing a range of benefits but also in terms of providing advocacy for oppressed clients. Advocacy is a typical example through which the power of social support is enacted to help clients move toward therapeutic change.

In our experience, when a person who has suffered from oppression has an adequate number of the precursors, it is likely that positive change will occur. If an oppressed client is particularly resistant or difficult, it may be wise to first make sure that precursors are present with a client, and with the counselor as well (see Hanna, 2002). Without the presence of the various precursors, the usual counseling techniques and procedures are likely to fail. The therapeutic relationship is vitally important, of course, but with members of oppressed groups, even the most kind-hearted and caring counselor may lack the empathy required to encourage precursors of change. In fact, some counselors are likely, because of a lack of empathy toward oppression and culture, to discourage the precursors in clients, even when they believe that what they are doing is helpful (Hanna, 2002).

In Figure 1, an integrative paradigm (adapted from Hanna, 2011 ) displays an overview of the major theories of counseling, including the multicultural, feminist, and social justice theories that have emphasis here. The major theories lead to therapeutic change, each in its own fashion of changes in cognition, behavior, affect, and so on. Change is also accomplished through the precursors, stages, and processes of change. Finally, the net effect is an increase of freedom through its four modalities. This is not a model per se, but a paradigm that gives rise to models. In the context of this article, the phenomenon of oppression is diametrically opposed to change and freedom and is far more prevalent than most counselors and researchers tend to believe. For example, Jacobs ( 1994) noted that oppression is, in reality, the primary source of all psychopathology that does not have its basis in disease, illness, or unalterable physiology. It should also be noted that a fundamental consequence of oppression, both by force and by deprivation, is the inhibition and nullification of the presence of the precursors of therapeutic change. This can be by cultural design and intent-as in the case of the oppression of Native Americans and African Americans by White society-as well as by happenstance through natural disasters and hardships. In the case of immigrants and the obstacles they face, counselors need to advocate for them and search to provide equal governmental treatment and opportunities (Chung, Bemak, & Grabowsky, 2011).

*Techniques for Freedom From Oppression

Having discussed the foundations of change and the importance of freedom, we now outline a path to achieving freedom. We want to mention at the outset that we do not believe that complete and total freedom is possible. It seems to be achieved by degrees. With that said however, the point should be made that a greater degree of freedom is preferable to a lesser degree. It could be said that, at some point, a person becomes functionally freed or liberated when the precursors of change are largely under the control of the person. It is interesting that the precursors seem to regulate the motivation of the client, as well as the magnitude and rate of change itself (Hanna & Ritchie, 1995). In our research of the subject, it seems that a focus on cognition, affect, and relationships is crucial, but especially when it is blended with validating clients' perceptions. In applying these techniques, counselors need to have wisdom, especially in a multicultural/diversity context (Hanna, Bemak, & Chung, 1999). These themes are implicit in the approaches outlined in the paragraphs that follow, and the techniques are designed to bring about viable therapeutic change. The techniques presented here are not meant to be a formula and are applied as appropriate to the client's needs. They do not constitute a model in themselves.

*The Cognitive Therapy of Oppression

The cognitive therapy of oppression was proposed originally by Hanna et al. (2000). It is a form of therapy intended to identify; challenge; and modify internalized, oppressive beliefs. However, in the case of oppression, these beliefs are forced on the person, often at a young age. From this perspective, cognitive therapy, as it is routinely practiced sometimes blames the victim (Hanna et al., 2000) for coming up with these beliefs when, in fact, the individual was victimized by the beliefs. This occurs when negative harmful beliefs are forcefully or subtly imposed or inflicted on the person or group to deliberately debilitate them (see Hanna et al., 2000; Miller, 1986). That is, the person is viewed as responsible for having originated or placed in his or her own mind debilitating thoughts such as "I am worthless," "I can't do anything right," "I am lazy," or "I will never amount to anything."

In fact, such beliefs are typical of the messages that are forced on a person by an oppressive group or individual to keep him or her down and under control. Although this approach relieves the victim of the blame of having caused or created the beliefs, it does not relieve the victim of the responsibility for keeping them. The victim's mistake is in agreeing with the negative beliefs. It is the function of the cognitive therapy of oppression to get the person to disagree and move toward freedom. The responsibility that the victim bears as a move toward freedom is to end the agreement with the oppressive message (see Frankl, 1946/1963).

Thus, the client is asked to list each dysfunctional or harmful belief, and then identify who the oppressor was that enforced that belief. He or she is then asked to rate the degree of agreement he or she has with the oppressive belief on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 to 5, or whatever. The person then consciously disagrees with each belief, disputing it, if necessary, in the classic cognitive therapy tradition and replacing the oppressive belief with one that is freeing. This approach is based on the awareness and confronting the problem precursors.

An alternative to this procedure is to identify the oppressor and then ask what the oppressive person or group led, forced, or influenced the client to believe about himself or herself. The next step is similar to the one in the aforementioned procedure, in that the person is asked to rate on a scale how much he or she agrees with that belief. At that point, the person is helped to disagree with the belief and it is hoped replace it with a positive and valid belief. In this approach, not only is the person freed from the negative belief, but he or she is also under less influence from the harmful oppressor that he or she still carries in his or her mind.

An advantage of the cognitive therapy of oppression is that the source of the dysfunctional belief can be discredited and negated. For example, in the classic cognitive approach, to negate the source of the thought "I will never amount to anything" is tantamount to subtly invalidating and disrespecting the client, if the assumption is that the client originated the belief. However, if the source of the belief is identified and pinpointed to be an abusive father or an oppressive dominant culture, the source can be invalidated and discredited and thus, loses much of its power over the individual (see Hanna et al., 2000).

*Case Example

Take, for example, the case of a 15-year-old male adolescent who had been cruelly physically and verbally abused by his father, who imposed on him rigid low self-esteem beliefs that had not responded to classic cognitive therapy. (Details of the case have been altered to protect client anonymity.) The boy was asked if the father was an expert on human nature or if he had a master's or doctoral degree in counseling or psychology. The boy replied, with no small amount of contempt, that his father had no such educational degree or knowledge of people. The boy was then asked if his father truly understood him. The boy replied in disgust, "All my father cares about is himself." He was then asked "If your father has no degree concerning people or a natural understanding of people, and if your father doesn't even understand you, how can anything he has ever said about you be true?" This procedure finally opened the door to getting the boy to consider that his low self-esteem originated with his father and that his negative beliefs about himself were invalid. This was the beginning of this client's freedom from the harmful dominance of his father, as more and more negative beliefs were identified reevaluated, and replaced. As his father's psychological hold over him diminished through this approach, it was easier and easier to alleviate his once resistant low self-esteem beliefs. It also made it easier for him to develop the freedom to decide for himself what was true and what he wanted to do with his life.

*The Release of Emotional Pain

Another aspect of the attainment of a degree of freedom from oppression is in the case of being freed of painful emotions to a greater or lesser degree. This includes clients who are displaying a considerable amount of anger, given that anger often has painful emotion at its core (Hanna & Hunt, 1999). For some clients, the relief of emotional pain can be better accomplished initially through a means that is not specifically cognitive but experiential. Usually, there is much rage to be found in such clients as a result of the deep hurt and anguish that is harbored deep in the wounded psyche. There are several approaches to this anger. One is through a technique called addressing the hurt (Hanna & Hunt, 1999). When a person is angry, allowing the person to talk about the anger can be helpful but often does not result in a reduction of the anger.

Some clients, it seems, are proud of their anger and use it to protect themselves in hostile environments and are not interested in reducing or managing their anger at all (Hanna, Hanna, & Keys, 1999; Hanna & Hunt, 1999). In such cases, it may help to try a backdoor approach by addressing the hurt that can often be found underlying the anger. This is not meant to be a comprehensive theory of anger, but it is often clinically workable. A client can be asked if he or she is angry toward someone or angry in general. Most clients have little trouble identifying anger. The client is then asked if he or she feels the anger inside of him or her. Following this, the client is asked if he or she "has ever been hurt." This may require clarification, and the client is asked if he or she feels that hurt inside of him or her right now. Often, the client will respond with a yes, but the next question is the key. If the client has indeed acknowledged having been hurt, he or she can be asked, "If all that hurt inside of you went away, what would happen to your anger?" This often allows the client to see that the true problem is not the anger but the hurt. It is interesting that the client will often not be interested in reducing the anger, but it seems that most clients will indeed be interested in reducing the hurt (Hanna, Hanna, & Keys, 1999; Hanna & Hunt, 1999).

Another way of addressing the hurt can be done by asking clients about incidents in which they have been hurt. As stated previously, we have found that clients who do not usually have the inclination to disclose feelings have little trouble identifying when they have been hurt. Once the client has admitted to some hurt in his or her life, it can be indicated to him or her that a routine function of counseling is to diminish that hurt and pain. Many clients may be unaware that such a thing is possible. The client can be asked what his or her life would be like if 90% of his or her pain was gone. Many, but not all, clients respond that their entire lives would be different. At this point, the counselor makes an agreement with the client to address the hurt through counseling and work together to try to reduce it as much as possible. This approach allows anger to be addressed through the hurt and pain that feeds it (Hanna & Hunt, 1999). This approach is based on the willingness or readiness to experience anxiety precursor.

A different approach to releasing emotional pain is based on the confronting the problem precursor. In this approach, a person is asked to imagine himself or herself in an elevator with very thick but transparent walls and that there are many floors that can be traversed deep into the depths of one's feelings and mind. The client is asked to lower the elevator slowly through the various floors and report what he or she sees. The thick walls are said to protect the person from the pain that is present in the depths. The client is told that he or she can control the movement of the elevator independent of the wishes of the therapist, so that he or she can come back up to the top (or ground) floor whenever he or she chooses. Through the client's reporting of what is observed, the practitioner can get a sense of the scope and landscape of the client's anguish and pain. No client should be in any way coerced into this technique, because it can be quite intense. However, once the technique has been done, the client can then be asked to process the feelings and experiences that were reported, according to his or her own inclinations, of course. The more the client confronts the problem, the more the pain tends to diminish (Hanna, 2002).

Still another approach to the processing of hurt and painful emotion caused by the oppressive acts of others is through the empty chair (Polster & Polster, 1973). The oppressive person or group is placed in the empty chair or chairs, and the technique is executed in the classic sense, with the client taking the viewpoints of and becoming the self and the oppressor as necessary, while processing the feelings and perspectives that inevitably arise. For the purpose of freedom, it is important for the client, in this technique, to see how the oppressor enforces beliefs on the client and, most important, how the oppressor denies and discourages the perception and awareness of the oppressed person through invalidation. This approach is also aligned with feminist theory (Evans et al., 2010; Lerner, 1988; Miller, 1986) in terms of confronting oppressive influences, in this case, patriarchal.

*The Rehabilitation of Perception

Accurate perception, closely related to the awareness precursor of change, may well be a key to freedom (Hanna, 2002; Hanna et al., 2000). In this approach, the client is asked to outline and list the mechanisms and methods used by an oppressive group or individual to inflict hurt or cause pain. This is often relatively easy for the client, because he or she has often been quite perceptive of the oppressive individual or group through the simple need to survive. Unfortunately, the client's accurate perception of the oppressor has usually gone unacknowledged by the client and exists in the person as a coping skill but not a skill of which the client is typically aware. Paradoxically, the client does not know that through enduring the pain of being oppressed, he or she has become more perceptive and aware as a result. This is the silver lining, so to speak, in the cloud of oppression (Hanna, 2002; Miller, 1986). When this curious paradox is pointed out to clients, they are often both surprised and pleased and will sometimes comment that they were "always good at reading people." The acknowledgment and recognition of a client's enhanced perception, as a result of having been oppressed can be quite freeing and helps the client to move away from a victim stance.

By bringing these perceptions and coping strategies to awareness, counselors can help clients begin to develop wisdom and move beyond mere survival tactics, thereby building on what they were already doing, but now doing so with aware- ness and a degree of certainty, as well as beginning to trust their perceptions rather than doubt or invalidate them. The client can also be asked if he or she has ever acted in a similar vein as the oppressor by hurting others. This may also help to free the client from the added guilt of being "just as bad" and recognize that it is normal for a person to take on such charac- teristics under the duress and stress of an oppressive climate. As a client begins to recognize and comprehend the tactics of oppression, complete with the discouragement of perception by the oppressor, he or she can then begin to chart a path to eventual freedom. It begins with awareness and a desire to be free that transforms into commitment (Hanna et al., 2000).

*Examining the Beliefs and Tactics of Oppressors in Groups

There is a group approach that is designed to help members of oppressed groups by asking specific questions that lead to the development of perception and the desire for freedom. In the case of groups for women, for example, questions are presented and then discussed and processed (Hanna, 2002; Maass, 2002). Some of the key feminist questions that can be asked are as follows:

* What do men in this society want women to believe about themselves?

* What kind of behavior by women gets rewarded in this society?

* Why do some men want women to have low self- esteem?

* How are women regarded who do not have attractive bodies by current standards?

* How are women regarded who are not "feminine" by stereotypical judgments?

* How are women regarded who do not wear makeup or conform to male expectations?

Similar sets of questions can be formulated for Native Americans, African Americans, Latinos and Latinas, and Asian Americans, along with gay men, lesbians, and any other oppressed group.

*Conclusion

The idea of freedom is ancient, and there are extensive and disciplined philosophies and psychologies of freedom and liberation, such as those laid out in the Hindu Upanishads (Nikhilananda, 1964) and various Yogic psychological texts (e.g., Aranya, 1983) that catalog knowledge reaching back into the dawn of recorded history. Many of those ideas can be used to add to the outline of methods presented here. In any case, it is time that a differentiation be made between freedom and those approaches that encourage adjustment or adaptation. It is harmful to advocate adjusting to a society that does nothing to support a client when freedom may be a better solution.

Jacobs (1994) noted that oppression is ultimately the primary source of all nonphysiological psychopathology. If this is indeed the case-and a strong argument can be made to support this view-then freedom may be a way of refrain- ing the entire counseling enterprise to match the reframe of psychopathology. This would afford a realistic, focused and penetrating insight into the greater goals of counsel- ing, from approaches to psychopathology to reaching the heights of spirituality. The techniques presented here are but a sampling of possible techniques that might be substantial additions to the multicultural counseling literature. Adding such techniques to multicultural and diversity counseling can enhance the freedom of oppressed clients by providing a focus on the precursors of therapeutic change itself and the freedom and liberation that result from actively engaging the primary mechanisms of positive change.

Sidebar

Received 03/02/12

Revised 08/11/12

Accepted 09/18/12

DOI: 10.1002/j. 1556-6676.2013.00104.x

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AuthorAffiliation

Fred J. Hanna and Betty Cardona, Department of Counselor Education and Supervision, University of Northern Colorado. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Fred J. Hanna, Department of Counselor Education and Supervision, University of Northern Colorado, McKee Hall 248, Campus Box 131, Greeley, CO 80639-0001 (e-mail: [email protected]).

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