Attributions on Treatment of Low Socioeconomic Status Clients and Counselor Training for Perspective Taking

Abstract

As educators of mental health professionals, in medical schools and with devising unique multicultural training in counseling and psychotherapy, we have utilized various perspective taking training methods for students to gain insight into the plight of the ‘other’, specifically, those who are less fortunate in society. We wanted to investigate if the training of counselors and psychotherapists is lacking in this realm, especially when practicing in the real world and with the disadvantaged New York Metropolitan population that we so often intend to serve. We used qualitative research, with Epoche methodology to ensure intercoder relatability, to examine the link between psychotherapists’ social class attributions and their experiences with low socioeconomic status (SES) clients. Interview questions inquired into the attributions of Ten (10) psychotherapists with different training levels concerning social class and treatment outcomes. Results revealed that psychotherapists view the issue of poverty from a situational or attributional perspective. That meant that psychotherapists might view clients as responsible for living in poverty and might not be empathetic to the clients. Based on our findings we hope that measures are taken by our colleagues (across the USA and internationally) to enhance perspective taking activities within curriculums.