The Legal And Professional Issues Related Disorders, Domestic Violence And Child Abuse

A therapist will face problems, issues and client troubles everyday. The professional must understand how their client relates to the world around them. These feelings and ideas affect how the client sees the problem and how they respond to their situation. Their actions, in turn, have bearing on individual thoughts, needs, and emotions. The therapist must be aware of the client's history, values, and culture in order to provide effective therapy. This paper will outline and provide information as to the importance of cultural competence and diversity in family therapy.

Engaging into the importance of multicultural competence, awareness of such competency has become a significant necessity in the area of mental health, and various fields of psychology (Hayes, 2008). It is essential for a counselor to be multicultural competent in order to develop a therapeutic alliance with a client, while understanding their cultural identity. Therefore, culturally competent knowledge, attitudes, and skills of diverse culture, is necessary, in proper treatment and diagnosis. Nonetheless, the complexity of cultural diversity can contribute to challenges in assessment, diagnosis and or treatment. It is further understood; by understanding one’s social history, psychosocial history, presenting problems, along with other pertinent information regarding a cultural responsiveness in a diagnosis, and how it would be beneficial to individuals of various social, ethnic, and other minority groups in order to make a treatment plan based on the findings of a cultural assessment (Sue & Sue, 2013). Nonetheless, cultural influences, often neglected, are needed to incorporate the challenges cultural groups face when seeking treatment. Therefore, I have found it applicable to use “ADDRESSING,” framework in therapy as a resource for developing cultural and relevant assessments in addition to the onset symptoms presented in the client in the case study of Mrs. Hudson. The use of “ADDRESSING” acronym is designed to obtain age, developmental and physical disabilities

In my personal opinion and experience, I find that the field of psychology is lacking in diverse cultural competencies as much as the society is diverse in its population. I believe that as with using any theoretical model, the therapists’ cultural knowledge needs to include understanding of the many cultural considerations influencing the effectiveness of treatment when dealing with clients from diverse backgrounds. When servicing the individuals in the family, care and attention needs to be directed towards family and community norms and values around help seeking, secrecy and confidentiality, family roles, child rearing and spiritual practices.

Bell-Tolliver, L., Burgess, R., & Brock, L. J. (2009). African American therapists working with African American families: An exploration of the strengths perspective in treatment. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 35(3), 293-307. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/220979644?accountid=35812

Cultural competence as it pertains to counseling is a vital skill to possess in today’s ever-changing society. Counseling is a high demand profession which involves interaction with person from all walks of life and all types of backgrounds. As we become more sensitive to cultural diversity around us, we must make an effort to understand those who are different from us. The lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender or LGBT community has come to the forefront of our social consciousness with much media attention given to the issue of marriage equality in many states.

To effectively lessen the effects of lifelong racism and discrimination, Hays & Erford (2014) recommends a strength-based approach, with the counselor focusing on the individual and family capacities. Focusing on the client’s positive attributes and favorable cultural norms can encourage one to become more resilient (Vaterlaus, Skogrand, & Chaney, 2015). Furthermore, applying counseling skills such as unconditional positive regard, empathy, consistency, focusing on the client, and providing a supportive environment can all help the therapeutic relationship (Hays & Erford, 2014). Additionally, making the counselor/client relationship equal will also allow the client to feel more comfortable, may dispel the mistrust of counseling prominent in African American culture (Hays & Erford, 2014). Finally, acknowledging the racial differences with the client could encourage them to discuss the racism and discrimination they may have experienced (Hays & Erford, 2014).

The United States is one of the most culturally, ethnically, racially, and linguistically diverse countries in the world, so it is essential that all service provider know a range of strategies in order to enhance their relationships with families from a variety of cultural and linguistic backgrounds. It is helpful for those seeking to work as service providers to develop a common foundation of knowledge and practical strategies to address the needs of the families they serve, especially when the families' cultural background are different from their own. The textbook Knowing and Serving Diverse Families is designed for service providers who are providing early mediation services to families of diverse cultures. It includes ideas and

In addition, it is important to learn more about the Jacques family cultural. It is stated that Mrs. Jacques is a Christian, which is vital information for the therapist to take into consideration. Moreover, as the therapist it is essential to be aware of one own biases of the Jacques cultural beliefs. Furthermore, a therapist needs to be on time for sessions, because the Jacques cultural is appropriate to being on time. According to Congress (2004), some culturally diverse family may have dissimilar when it comes to male and female relationships in a marriage. In addition, in American society, a male that is from a dominant structure family will have conflict with equal opportunities gender relationships. Furthermore, culturally diverse families practice with discipline children are different.

While working with clients that are multicultural, it’s important that counselors address the behavioral problems in the client’s family. (Santisteban, et al., 2003). It is important that the counselor allows changes in the family’s function and allow problematic behaviors to change to allow the family to work better, together (Santisteban, et al., 2003). The counselor can do this by addressing the client’s presenting problems and correcting those problems with healthier behaviors (Santisteban, et al., 2003). The counselor needs to allow the family time to change their behaviors. For example: A Hispanic family has come into counseling because their son is disruptive. This disruptive behavior is disrupting the family’s functioning.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the field of marriage and family counseling beginning with the history and development of the profession and its importance in the field of counseling. This paper will also evaluate five major themes relevant to Marriage and Family Therapy which include: roles of Marriage and Family Therapists; licensure requirements and examinations; methods of supervision; client advocacy; multiculturalism and diversity. The author will discuss significant aspects to the field of Marriage and Family Therapy such as MFT identity, function, and ethics of the profession. This paper will assess biblical values in relation to Marriage and Family Therapists and to the field

It is important to be aware of one’s limitations, weaknesses and strengths in the delivery of counseling services. Taking into account the cultural values of the client, the support systems and the client’s view of the key parts of his or her makeup (the history of the client) are culture specific (because someone is of the same race does not mean that values will be the same) and does not discount the individual. Sue et al reminds us that multicultural counseling competency looks beyond racial and ethnic minorities and also includes disabilities, sexual orientation, age, and other special populations (Sue, et al, 1992).

The purpose of this paper is to prepare an annotated bibliography on family therapy with emphasis on ethnicity and sociocultural influences on the problems of communication. This research includes twelve resources on authors with the following annotations: Delineation of the main focus or purpose of each author 's work; Background and credibility of each author; Intended audience for the work; Any unique feature of the work; Theoretical understandings; Family therapy strategies or techniques; and a Conclusion or observations presented in the work.

When it comes to counseling interracial couples and/or families, counselors must be aware of every possible problems interracial couples face in everyday life. Counselors must also be aware that it is going to be difficult depending on the situation. It is counselors’ responsibility to uphold the ACA Code of Ethics, and to make sure they do not put every interracial couple in a discomfort zone when discussing about most common problems. The ACA Code of Ethics is in place to assist counselors into making the best ethical decision that matches both the counselors and clients without stepping into their discomfort zone. In order to get the clients out of their discomfort zone, counselors must give the clients time to trust them first.

In a multicultural counseling perspective there are four key approaches when counseling individuals, (a) multicultural awareness of culturally learned assumptions about self and others leading to accurate assessments of clients, (b) multicultural knowledge of information, (c) multicultural skills and interventions, that are appropriate treating clients, and (d) individuals are from a variety of backgrounds, demographic status, and affiliation of cultures. The three-stage approach, will direct the counselor towards levels of multicultural competence in therapy by providing a successful outcome in the recovery process. When conducting a psychotherapy session with a client the counselor should be able to demonstrate skills, when exploring the client’s cultural background. Counselors should also be able to focus on the essential skills and pattern behaviors, when identifying cultural differences. Counseling a minority from a different culture counselors’ must be able to identify their own personal behaviors. These behaviors are crucial when counseling these individuals. First, a counselor must be able to sense the clients’ viewpoint or issue in some way. Secondly, a counselor should be specific when asking a question rather than being unclear and confusing.

The multicultural issues that arise during the trans generational family therapy process is called acculturation, it is the accommodation process that occurs when groups from two distinct cultures are in contact over a sustained period of time. Some of the issues that come up with different cultures are when a person may have isolation and alienation from their new culture because they are trying to hold on and continue to practice native cultures beliefs. Another issue is when the person starts to denigrate and reject their old cultures dress, diet, values and sometimes name. There is also the problem of uneven adaption from other family members which lead to conflict between other family members. The integration to the new culture trying to hold on to the old culture can and will cause problems to arise. As the therapist you have to be very careful when working with a family from a different culture, it is already a rough transition. In my research I found that working with immigrant families they have the most issue with acculturation. It also states that when working with families from minority