The Therapist's Skills At This Point Are Still Novice And Developing

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.

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).

Cultural competency is critical in psychology practice. In the United States, the groups, which considered as cultural and ethnic minorities, are growing in the population (APA, 2003). Culture often influences the content and quality of people’s experience, perception, and response. Thus, it is important for psychologists to be aware of cultural influences on client’s presenting experience(s) (Gardiner & Kosmitzki, 2010). Without a regard for cultural influence, there is a significant risk for the psychologist to misunderstand, misinterpret, and misguide his or her client. Such misunderstanding, misinterpretation, and misguidance are not only unhelpful but can be detrimental for the client (Corey, Corey, & Callanan, 2011; Pope, & Vasquez, 2011).

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

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.

As a result, it is imperative to take a look at current and historical oppressions that a client experience by being part of a minority social group or a group that does not conform to popular culture (Aviera, 2002). These oppressions will offer me a deeper insight into the source of challenges that a client faces. By merely looking at the individual without considering these oppressions, I could fail to determine what drives him to experience life the way that he does. Therefore, in order to build a practice that is useful to a different set of cultures, keeping in mind significant experiences encountered as a collective is fundamental in cultivating effective cross-cultural counseling

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

There are three core goals leading a counselor to become culturally competent, which include awareness of personal biases, understanding and acknowledging the worldviews of individuals from all cultures, and developing appropriate techniques and interventions by using specific skills and strategies. Becoming aware of ones own biases is essential for changing ones perspective. Being aware of Ones of biases allows the individual to rewire their thinking patterns and unattached previous assumptions. A cultural competent counselor will actively understand the worldviews of all individuals from different cultures. Research is a key fundamental when educating ones self about culture. A culturally competent counselor will accept clients for who they are and perceive them without judgment. Cultural competent counselors will create innovative techniques and interventions depending upon the client’s culture. Counselors must function with clients as a team to optimize growth and development of the client. Together, the counselor and the client can find new strategies and interventions that work effectively. Becoming culturally competent is an important goal for counselors and throughout the profession counselors will strive to achieve

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

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).

Cultural responsiveness is an ever-present challenge faced by professionals in our field. Due to the opportunities and freedoms our nation offers, the influx of diverse individuals and accompanying challenges will only increase. Culture is a lens through which we each filter our personal experiences. Because each of us possess our own implicit biases, it is critical that as clinicians we routinely conduct self-assessments in order increase our awareness of them. Throughout my practice and clinical training I have continually conducted personal needs assessments to target potential areas for personal growth. I believe that my efforts to do so have furthered my mission to provide culturally sensitive services.

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.

Being aware of culture in the field has many benefits. The main benefit would be that it would help in providing better therapy for the client in question. Understanding how culture affects a client’s life can help explain the clients various roles and identities in life. Apart from that, understanding socio cultural settings will help the psychologist be more aware of the needs of their clients. For example, Indians are less comfortable in seeing a psychologist and are less liable to tell their family and friends that they are in currently undergoing therapy (Zhang, Snowden, & Sue, 1998). The psychologist should use information about the clients’ culture to personalise the therapy in order to enhance the effectiveness of it as well as to not discourage the client as well as to understand how culture affects the client and the disorder. The involvement of culture would also make the psychologist more aware of their own personal biases and mind-sets that maybe prevent the therapy from being effective. Creation of guidelines to help psychologists in the assessment of clients from varied cultures are important.