time try to find another seat by continuing with statements of the kind until someone else
stands up. The rule is that once standing, they must continue with other similarity than the
one that has lost them their seat. The counsellor will request participants to comment and
will conclude that there are various degrees of similarity between people: the culture
pyramid made up of basic needs common to all (rest, food, movement, etc.), cultural
similarities in the reference group and levels of personality similarities.
Three people standing
The purpose of the exercise is to develop cooperation and group awareness. Seats are
placed in a circle. The participants are invited to sit down except three who remain
standing. The rule is that at any time only three people should be standing, and those who
are standing must sit down again within 10 seconds. When somebody sits down someone
else must stand up, when somebody stands up someone must sit down, and so on. The
group must understand and compromise without talking so that there should always be
only three people standing.
Evaluation
Advantages:
- attracts cultural minorities to counselling;
- relevant for clients from the minority group;
- clients are responsible for the solution found together with the counsellor;
- diminishes the incidence of multicultural conflicts;
- helps clients from minority groups integrate in school, and in social and
professional life.
Disadvantages:
- it is difficult to completely eliminate the cultural grounds of thinking and
action in spite of the theoretical multicultural training; - the stress placed on minority identity is unjustifiably big; ignoring cultural
similarities creates the false idea that these identities might be static, which
will lead to difficult integration; - communication language is often a problem;
- the influence of the members in a minority community is considerable, which
requires considering the life context of the client.