Mark Moore, founder of Intercultural Counseling and Consultation on therapy

Mark James Moore, founder of Intercultural Counseling and Consultation.

By: Anel Herrera

Mark Moore is soft-spoken, has long hair, and always greets his patients in casual jeans, a simple shirt and a smile in his office just down the street from Millennium Park.

 Each work day, the Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor sees patients of various ethnic groups for the private practice group he founded, Intercultural Counseling and Consultation. At Intercultural Counseling and Consultation, the mission is to provide the highest quality of psychological and psychiatric services to all races, cultures, nationalities and classes of patients.

The group specializes in cultural shock, cultural adjustment, depression, trauma, anxiety, addiction, and couple therapy in different ranges of immigrants. They strive for cultural sensitivity, experience and knowledge to promote self-growth through consistent clinical supervision.

Intercultural Counseling and Consultation is unique in Chicago. Each of its four therapists is multilingual and multicultural: Ayako Konno, Psy. D., Casey McNamara, MA, LPC and Ionanna Hadjicharalambous.

 "All along, even from school, I knew I wanted to work with immigrants, foreigners and people with different cultural backgrounds," Moore said.

 Moore has lived on three continents and speaks Portuguese, Spanish and Japanese. He uses his language skills to work with immigrant populations, especially Latinos. Moore's childhood was spent in Brazil where he lived until he was 11 years old. There, he became fluent in Portuguese. When he returned to the United States, he began studying Spanish because of the large Latino community.

"I came across Moore through my job," said a former Latino patient. "He taught me that if I wanted to change my life, it was great decision. If I was unwilling to do so, therapy was useless. From the first session, I knew he was going to help me and he did.

"He's a very nice person, very comprehensive. He's very special because he was very open and spoke directly."

Mark sees recurring themes in his patients, despite their varying ethnic origins.

In the Latino community, Moore notices his patients want pragmatic solutions. His patients come into his office asking for advice, which is not therapy. Moore spends time educating his patients as to what therapy actually is and sets goals for improvement.

                "It's not like going to a regular doctor and saying 'this hurts, what do I do to fix it?'" Moore said.

                This trend also applies to his Asian patients and he attributes it to the stigma in Asia. Asians tend to be more indirect, and if he is being overly direct they might see it as offensive. "Saving face" is also of upmost importance, what the community thinks is in high regards in both Asian and Latino communities.

                Eastern Europeans, specifically Yugoslavians, are a tightly-knitted community in Chicago. Similarly, they are also worried about what others are thinking. Reputations and status are important values in the group.

"You have to be highly sensitive because you can easily lose clients if you say the wrong sentence and offend them unconsciously."

            Moore has used his personal experiences abroad to help patients with all sorts of cultural adjustment issues.

                "I felt most places really are not sensitive to it [adjustment issues]," Moore said. "They're either not aware of it or don't have their own personal experience. Some therapists impose their own value system on the client without realizing it."

                Being more culturally sensitive may be an issue for therapists who have never lived abroad. Moore believes it is important for a therapist to immerse in a culture in order to effectively help patients. Too often, he sees therapists imposing their own views and values on patients without understanding their background.

Moore received his Bachelor degree in psychology from the University of Southern California in 1989 and his Master's degree in clinical psychology from Roosevelt University in 2000.

 Moore's interest in psychology started in high school when he took his first psychology class.

                "I was also interested in languages," Moore said.  "I thought about [being] an interpreter or translator. Then I found out maybe it’s not as glamorous as I originally thought. So then I started taking more undergraduate classes in psychology."

                The more classes Moore took, he realized a psychology degree would perfectly suit his interests.

                His internship in graduate school first exposed him to working with foreigners. He worked with political refugees from Bosnia after the Bosnia-Serbia civil war at the Kovler Center. The center’s work focused on highly traumatized immigrants, homeless people, and political refugees.

After completing his degree in psychology, he chose to move to Japan for two years to travel and learn Japanese. While in Japan, he taught English as a second language. Moore was then drawn to Chicago, which has been the center for most of his career.

Moore considers himself a humanistic, client-centered therapist also influenced by other theorists such as Sigmund Freud. He focuses on the present time and the therapeutic relationship with his patients. He's also client directive. He lets patients choose their own direction in therapy and follows them on their path, providing more clarity.

 Moore is not confrontational, and he will not tell patients what to do or not to. He allows them to make their own decisions to learn from. He believes his methods work well with the immigrant population he helps because it is not implosive of a therapist's own values.

               Moore is constantly learning from his colleagues or patients.

"I feel like every day I come to work, you don't really know what you're going to walk into," Moore said. "It's always a surprise and challenge but there's growth."

                Twice a week, Moore and the therapists at Intercultural Counseling and Consultation hold clinical meetings to review cases more in-depth which also serve as a learning group. The goal is to keep learning and improving clinical skills.

                Twice a week, Moore and the therapists at Intercultural Counseling and Consultation hold clinical meetings to review cases more in-depth which also serve as a learning group. The goal is to keep learning and improving clinical skills.

                To people who need counseling but are afraid to seek it because of stigma and cultural reasons, Moore has these words of advice:

                "Try it, see what happens. Take a risk. You'd be surprised what you can learn about yourself in terms of improving the quality of your life and having more meaningful relationships."

 "I think what happens to a lot of people that aren't aware of what therapy is, they have the idea that it is for people who are really sick and mentally ill. Sometimes, people can benefit from it even when their life is going pretty good."