The Collaborative Conversation ( Flemons & Gralnik )

To provide competent care to a client, the therapist has to be culturally prepared to work with the client. To be culturally competent as a therapist I have to be aware of my own bias, my identity, and my values in regards of my culture. I also need to be aware of the judgments that I have about the client’s cultural identity. In order to know the client’s culture, I would inquire about the identity during the intake. I would use the Addressing model by Pamela Hays to inquire the cultural identity of my clients. The addressing model helps to consider the various social categories that a client belongs to. Also, providing culturally competent services is to be aware of the population surrounding the therapist’s office or agency in order to

Cultural competency aids in closing the “disparities gap” in health care. ("OMH," 2012, para. 2) In doing so, health professionals and their clients are better able to discuss concerns without cultural differences getting in the way of effective communication and problem solving. Being respectful of and sensitive to the client’s health beliefs, culture, values, and diverse needs can bring positive outcomes within treatment and patient care. After all, is it not the main job of the health care provider to ensure patient trust? Open forms of communication when dealing with client issues can only be provided if the patient is comfortable with his provider and believes his

The therapist’s interviewing skills at this point are still novice and developing. Although the therapist may be strong with his ability to stay connected with the client and reflect feelings, he still would need to improve his language with his questions to be more concise and clear. For the treatment plan, the therapist lacks real world experience and also has limited understanding with insurance companies and how they dictate the amount of sessions a client could schedule. Furthermore, the therapist lacks experience with utilizing his preferred theory and how to adapt it to potential clients. Although the theory suites will with the therapist’s style and understanding of therapy, there are still further understanding and application that is needed. Concerning cultural formulation, the therapist feels that is his current greatest strength. The therapist has spent substantial time with individual of different culture, socioeconomic and sexual orientation backgrounds. Additionally, the therapist is constantly looking to become more educated and immured with different aspects of his own minority culture along with the cultures of others in the United States. This is reflected in the therapist cultural formulations and sessions with his clients. Also, with this understand of individual difference and hardships, the therapist can show genuine empathy for his clients. The therapist has the understanding that although the client may have different religious

Each client is influenced by race, ethnicity, national origin, life stage, educational level, social class, and sex roles (Ibrahim, 1985). The counsellor must view the identity and development of culturally diverse people in terms of multiple interactive factors rather than a strictly cultural framework (Romero, 1985).

In order to provide culturally appropriate care, an examination of one's personal views, beliefs, and prejudices must be examined. The first portion of this paper will examine my personal values, beliefs, biases, and prejudices. The remaining paper will analyze the African American culture relating to the Ginger and Davidhizar's Transcultural Assessment Model cited in Hood (2010). This model uses six key cultural elements that include communication, space, social organization, time, environment, and biological variations. This model provides a systematic approach for assessing culturally diverse clients. I will also discuss an aspect of care that I would

The importance of a cross-cultural understanding in Psychology is imperative to successful care and assistance of mental health. Understanding and acknowledging the complexities of different cultures is the beginning of a more informed approach to mental health. Cultural factors and questions play a fundamental role, however, simply acknowledging cultural differences does not necessarily provide the best individual help. Thus, a combination of cultural, demographic and individual factors are crucial initial steps to specific individual assistance. Treating individuals in context can help discern deviations from cultural factors and norms. Therefore an approach which recognises that both culture and specificity to the client is most effective. Knowing someone’s background can be fundamental to clinical help but could also reinforce cultural stereotypes, this overly simplistic view could be detrimental to treatment. Throughout this essay the impact of culture on mental health will be examined, and how the health care provider and client mediate a relationship to produce the most effective results.

In all psychological and biological assessment, the use of culturally attuned assessments is top priority. “We may define culturally informed psychological assessment as an approach to evaluation that is keenly perceptive of and responsive to issues of acculturation, values, identity, worldview, language, and other culture-related variables as they may impact the evaluation process or the interpretation of resulting data” (Cohen, Swerdlik, & Sturman, 2013). Through this process key individuals contribute to the understanding of the client including family, friends, and coworkers input and information. Through the use of translators and other cultural affiliates clinicians are able to demonstrate a clearer understanding, a culturally applicable assessment, and ensure that the client understands the ins and outs of the assessment process. One important aspect of the implementation of the “one size fits all approach” to culturally attuned treatment and care in our mental health facilities (Cohen, Swerdlik, & Sturman, 2013). Assessment and clinical evaluations should not be a cookie cutter experience. The amount of patients that are

I am committed to embracing cultural diversity and social responsibility in my counseling practice (Corey, et al., 2015, p. 112). I am committed to my own cultural competency and, although I am not perfect, I am open to learning and growth (p. 118). I invite you to challenge my assumptions. Many therapy approaches reflect Western patriarchal values that do not fit the needs of all cultural perspectives (p. 117-118). I consider your disclosure of personal information to be an important aspect of therapy, but I will encourage you to self-disclose according to your own timeline, not mine (p. 120). Some people hesitate to speak due to respect and cultural norms, so I encourage you to let me know when I am being too direct or assertive in my questions (p. 122). Therapy sometimes assumes a goal of individualization, buy I realize this might not be your goal, so I am open to exploring issues of collective responsibility as well as self-actualization (p. 123). Finally, I come from a Western cultural orientation, both personally and professionally, and am often unconscious of my nonverbal behaviors, so I encourage you to let me know when I treat you disrespectfully in my use of eye contact, facial expression, or gestures, or when my interventions feel uncomfortably personal or intrusive (p. 123). “Recognizing our own cultural and historical embeddedness can remind us that our assumptions about what a person is and what a person should be or become

Many assessments fail to gather much information on a broader multi-cultural spectrum, this assessment proves that its makers are interested in finding how multiple cultures deal with issues within their family when they may arise. The cultures and the languages that the FAD addresses include: English, Arabic, Armenian, Chinese, French, Dutch, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, Thai, and Turkish. This assessment is made to be completed within a 10-15 minute time frame and is made to be scored within the same amount of time it takes to administer the assessment. This is a self-reporting assessment which can pose the risk of a client not being entirely truthful while completing the assessment however; when this assessment is given it is typically given to the entire family to identify what each individual family member is feeling to ensure that an effective treatment plan is put into place for the clients. This assessment should be completed before the family begins treatment and according to Whiston (2013) when making a treatment plan we have to consider the degree that the problem is affecting the client, the environmental or social factors that are contributing to the clients problems, the clients strengths, as well as should cultural issues

Culturally competent care can best be understood by considering the recommendations of McGoldrick who said that culture and subculture has a history and background of experience that affects the product of that culture far more than it may realize. Family therapy generally focuses on the patterns and thought behavior of the different members within that family construct, but McGoldrick took a step backwards and said that ethnicity defined family behavior and that, to understand individual and family, one first had to understand and dialogue with that specific culture (McGoldrick, M., Pearce, J. and Giordano, 1982).

While gender and ethnicity may be the more apparent cultural features other things are important also, which include sexual orientation, spiritual or religious practices, political aspects, and general philosophy of life are all cultural elements that need to be incorporated into interventions and treatment options” (Cummins et al., 2012, p.237). In addition, it is important for the social worker to have cultural knowledge because it is necessary for selecting the appropriate intervention and treatment methods for that client. Furthermore, the appropriate multidimensional assessment provides the social worker with the internal culture of the client such as cognitive abilities or limitations, emotional health, and emotional responses and

Other specific changes can help to tailor the intervention to make it more culturally sensitive. When utilizing this intervention, it is important for the provider to “understand the core values of their culturally diverse clients” and take time to understand these beliefs before encouraging them to question personal and cultural beliefs (Corey, 2009, p. 300). Care would have to be taken to ensure positive rapport prior to encouraging this. Hinton and Jalal (2014), developed a cultural checklist that can be utilized to assess cultural sensitivity of CBT interventions which looks as ideas about language, religious background, demographic variables, and key catastrophic

To reduce these erroneous clinical conclusions, therapists should be aware of the range of standard behavior in clients cultural group and learn what is seen as a disorder in the client’s culture. This

Counselors who are unaware of diverse cultural viewpoints are more than likely to do intentional or unintentional damage when working within communities opposite of their own and with those whose cultures and worldviews differ from theirs. If a counselor is unaware of their own cultural identity, biases, and stereotypes, how then will they know if they are unintentionally causing harm to their clients or build rapport? Cultural self-awareness is relevant because counselors need to know their cultural identity and what they must offer their clients in a therapeutic relationship and to help clients become aware their cultural identities.

The art of using questions to help others seemed quite easy to me. Yet, incorporating questions in a counseling session proved to be more difficult than anticipated. Reflecting back on my readings from Chang, Decker, and Scott (2013), questions are used to obtain further knowledge of the client’s emotional and mental status. Questions are an integral part of a counseling session as these will guide and help counselors to get to the bottom of the client’s problems. There are different types of questions used in therapy meetings. We have specifically focused on asking closed-ended and open-ended questions. As stated by Chang, Decker, and Scott, (2013) closed-ended questions are usually those requesting brief one word answers to clarify