Counseling: A view from the Middle East |
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| Authors: | John C Moracco |
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| Institution: | (1) Auburn University, Alabama, U.S.A. |
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| Abstract: | Summary Societies throughout the world are experiencing rapidly changing conditions. Individuals in these societies are wrestling with a situation where the old order is disappearing and a suitable replacement has not yet stabilized. The Middle East is no exception to this phenomenon. That there will be a fundamental change in family patterns, vocational choice and life styles for women and men is inevitable. In the final analysis, it is all of a piece for a change in one cannot occur without a change in the other.Nowhere will this change be felt greater than in the status of women. Urbanization and industrialization combined with government campaigns have created political and economic opportunities to a large number of Middle Eastern women. More importantly though, these changes bespeak  an intimate message to both men and women that they must re-evaluate each other, as well as their family values, courtship patterns, socialization of their children, and the authority of ancient family traditions' (Goode, 1970, p. 146).Counseling has a major role in the modernization process taking place in the Middle East. This process will undoubtedly cause a certain degree of personal disruption. The disruptive forces of modernization seem a natural part of the process. It is in this area that counseling can play a major role. To be aware that there will be personal disruption is not enough. The counseling enterprise in developing countries must provide support services to its people. It must provide and equip individuals to live in a different society from which they are presently living. Ministries of education, by providing proper guidance and counseling services to its students can help case the shock of modernization.It's an exciting time in the Middle East. And it is one in which counseling has an unlimited potential to develop itself and aid in the area's struggle toward modernity. Before counseling can make an impact in the Middle East it must develop an indigenous philosophy of counseling. Recognizing that the Middle Easterner is a product of an authoritarian society, for instance, approaches to counseling which depend on counseling initiative, such as a strict nondirective approach, may not be appropriate. The philosophy must take cognizance of a deeply rooted history of tradition on the one hand and a strong desire to modernize on the other. Counseling in the Middle East could play a significant role as individuals struggle to reach a new identity that will reconcile the past with the future with a minimum of dislocation. |
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