COUNSELOR CONTENT ORIENTATION, COUNSELOR RACE, AND BLACK WOMENS CULTURAL MISTRUST AND SELF-DISCLOSURES

Black women were exposed to Black or White female counselors who used verbal statements reflective of either a cultural or a universal content orientation. The effects of counselor content orientation, counselor race, and participants' cultural mistrust levels on the frequency and depth of participant self-disclosures, ratings of counselor credibility, and willingness to self-refer were examined. Counselor content orientation related significantly to depth of disclosure and willingness to self-refer, with participants revealing more intimately and reporting a greater willingness to return to counselors when exposed to the cultural as opposed to the universal content orientation. Lower cultural mistrust levels also were related to a greater number of disclosures with Black counselors. Implications of these findings for future research are discussed.