Developing Multicultural Counselling in an Australian University

Abstract

Lifetime experiences have equipped the author with a broad and diverse background in approaching counselling and problem resolution. This has ranged from grief counselling to management of rural financial counselling and spiritual counselling. In 2004, the author was appointed Inaugural Hindu Chaplain at the Flinders University of South Australia, a position held until late 2007 (although his counselling role has continued until this day). The chaplaincy to which he was appointed was one of several that collectively comprised a multi-faith chaplaincy involving a team approach. The concept was one in which chaplains of different faiths would respect each other's traditions, would eschew proselytization, and would work cooperatively to mount joint educational and community interest projects. However, at the more fundamental level, his role consisted of providing chaplaincy services to Hindu students and staff studying or employed at Flinders University. (Increasingly this role extended to members of the other two universities based in Adelaide, neither of which possessed a Hindu chaplain.)