A study of Muslim Asian women's experiences of counselling and the necessity for a racially similar counsellor

A survey of four Muslim Asian women of varying ages was carried out, for whom the author had previously acted as a counsellor. The survey was designed to explore the extent to which client and counsellor racial similarity affected the therapeutic alliance, as the counsellor/author was of a similar race to all four clients. It was the author's belief that racial similarity in itself would not procure positive counselling outcomes, and hence this study attempted to explore the clients' perceptions of qualities extrinsic to race, including interpersonal skills, styles and approach to counselling of the counsellor, in order to duduce whether in fact these factors were more singnificant to the outcomes than race. The majority of clients did not feel racial similarity was an essential quality, although one client expressed cultural awareness as being a preferable quality. This has suggested that it is not essential for client and counsellor to be racially similar in order to achieve successul counselling outcomes.