The Role of Attentive Behaviour in Counseling People of African Ancestry

Abstract

Since time immemorial, counseling has been provided in Africa, albeit not on a professional level. The legion of problems affecting adults and adolescents in this twenty first century need intervention of competent counselors. The elders, the aunts, and uncles among others used to play this important role, resulting in the care of psychosocial problems affecting the close knit society. Counseling people of African descent has its peculiar considerations which are going to form the backbone of this article. While we celebrate diversity, it is critical to realize that being culturally sensitive to the minute cultural variations among various nationalities becomes crucial to effective counseling.   The inner emotional state of an individual is communicated through his or her body. Individuals pass on messages through kinesthetics, the intonation of one‘s voice, facial expressions, posture, gestures and eye contact which are more authentic in showing emotions than the verbal messages. This article is going to trace the non verbal cues that a counselor of people of African descent needs to be aware of if effective counseling is to take place.