Culture

Associated with a RACIAL or ETHNIC group as well as with GENDER, RELIGION, ECONOMIC STATUS, NATIONALITY, PHYSICAL CAPACITY OR DISABILITY AND AFECTIONAL OR SEXUAL ORIENTATION.

Can include AGE, GENDER, PLACE OF RESIDENCE, status variables such as SOCIAL, EDUCATIONAL AND ECONOMIC BACKGROUND, FORMAL OR INFORMAL AFFILIATIONS AND THE ETHNOGRAPHIC VARIABLES OF NATIONALITY, ETHNICITY, LANGUAGE, AND RELIGION.

Each of us is a member of different cultures and it is considered to be the lens through which lives are perceived.

Ethnicity

A sense of identity that stems from common ancestry, history, nationality, religion, and race. This unique social and cultural heritage provides cohesion and strength. It is a powerful unifying forces that offers a sense of belonging and sharing based on commonality.

Opposed Group

This refers to a group of people who have been singled out for differential and unequal treatment and who regard themselves as objects of collective discrimination. These groups have been characterized as subordinate, dominated and powerless.

Multiculturalism

is a generic term that indicates any relationship between and within two or more diverse groups. A multicultural perspective takes into consideration the specific values, beliefs, and actions influenced by a client's ethnicity, gender, religion, socioeconomic status, political views, sexual orientation, physical and mental/cognitive abilities, geographic region, and historical experience with the dominant culture.

Multicultural Counseling

Can be operationally defined as the working alliance between counselor and client that takes the personal dynamics of the counselor and client into consideration alongside the dynamics of the culture of both of these individuals.

Cultural Diversity

refers to the spectrum of differences that exists among groups of people with definable and unique cultural backgrounds.

Define Diversity and what groups it inludes?

refers to individual differences on a number of variables that place clients at risk for discrimination based on age, gender, gender identity, race, ethnicity, culture, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, disability, language, or socioeconomic status.

Cultural pluralism

a perspective that recognizes the complexity of cultures and values the diversity of beliefs and values. Counselors must provide services that help people to solve programs or make decisions in the midst of such sweeping demographic and sociological change.

Cultural diversity competence

refers to a practitioner's level of awareness, knowledge, and interpersonal skills needed to function effectively in a pluralist society and to intervene on behalf of clients from diverse backgrounds.

Cultural empathy

pertains to therapists' awareness of clients' worldviews which are acknowledged in relation to therapists' awareness of their own personal biases.

Culture-centered Counseling

is a three-stage development sequence from multicultural awareness to knowledge and comprehension to skills and applications. The individuals' or groups' culture plays a central role in understanding their behavior in context.

Cultural Awareness

includes a compassionate and accepting orientation that is based on an understanding of oneself and others within one's culture and context.

Social Justice Work in Counseling

involves the empowerment of individuals and family systems to better express their needs as well as to advocate on their behalf to address inequities and injustices they encounter in their community and in society at large. It moves beyond cultural awareness and focuses on active support and advocacy, including promoting equality and justice for underservved and oppressed groups of people.

Social Advocacy

addresses issues of equity for members of society who have been marginalized.

Cultural tunnel vision

is a perception of reality based on a very limited set of cultural experiences.

Culturally encapsulated counselors

define reality according to a narrow set of cultural assumptions and fail to evaluate other viewpoints, making little attempt to understand and accept the behavior of others.

Globally literate counselors

display a cultural curiosity that is characterized by an openness to engaging in new cultural experiences. Global literacy goes beyond tolerance of diverse cultures and worldviews; it promotes mutual respect and understanding.

Stereotypes

are oversimplified and uncritical generalizations about individuals who are identified as belonging to specific groups. It can influence how counselors esee the client.

Racism

Any pattern of behavior that, solely because of race or culture, denies access to opportunities or privileges to members of one racial or cultural group while perpetuating access to opportunities and privileges to embers of another racial or cultural group. Racism can operate on individual, interpersonal, and institutional leves, and it can occur intentionally or uninteniionally.

Unintentional Racism

is often subtle, indirect, and outside our conscious awareness; this can be the most damaging and insidious form of racism. Practitioners who presume that they are free of any traces of racism seriously underestimate the impact of their own socialization.

Cultural Racism

the belief that one group's history, way of life, religion, values, and traditions are superior to others. This allows for unequal distribution of power to be justified as a priority.

Microaggressions

are persistent verbal, behavioral, and environmental assaults, insults, and invalidations that often occur subtly and are difficult to identify. They usually involve demeaning implication and may be perpetrated against other on the basis of their race, gender, sexual orientation or ability status.

Cultural Blindness

The counselor overlooking a client's gender, sexual orientation ethnicity, or any other dimension of their lives. They are ignoring a vital part of that person's identity.

What are some common traits of culturally encapsulated counselors?

1. Defines reality according to one set of cultural assumption
2. Shows insensitivity to cultural variations among individuals
3. Accepts unreasoned assumptions without proof or ignores proof because that might disconfirm one's assumptions
4. Fails to evaluate other viewpoints and makes little attempt to accommodate the behavior of tothers
5. Is trapped in one-way thinking that resists adaptation and rejects alternatives.

Globally Literate Person

A lifelong process that is rooted in a commitment to living one's life in a manner that makes cultural diversity a core principle.

Cultural Tunnel Vision

A perception of reality based on a very limited set of cultural experiences. Counselors could unwittingly impose their values on clients by assuming that everyone shares these values.

Disability Community

A community of people who have disabilities. This can include childhood disabilities such as autism, attention deficit, hyperactivity disorders, and the cumulative lifestyle factors that lead to obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and cancers, as well as those injured in the military, outside the military, or born with birth defects.

What are some of the major influences between people with and without disablities?

1. our sociocultural conditioning
2. our childhood influences
3. various psychodynamic mechanisms that cultivate cultural tunnel vision
4. the perception that disability is seen as a punishment for sin
5. our existential anxiety and aesthetic aversion toward people who have disfigurement, physical limitations, and perceptions toward what normal is

What groups are considered in Diversity

Culture, religion, race, ability, age, gender, sexual orientation, education, socioeconomic level

What are forms of microaggesions?

1. Microassualt - an explicit derogation characterized by either a verbal or nonverbal attack that is designed to hurt the victim through name-calling, avoidance of intentional discriminatory acts.
2. Microinsults - rude and insensitive comments that demean a person's heritage and identity.
3. Microinvaladation - communications that negate, exclude, or nullify the thoughts, feelings, or realities of a person

Multicultural Competencies

A set of knowledge and skills that are essential to the culturally skilled counselor and gaining proficiency should be an ongoing process. It involves more than self-awareness and knowledge; it entails acquiring skills for effective multicultural interventions.

What are 3 examples of Multicultural Counseling Competencies?

1. Counselor awareness of own cultural values and bias
2. Understanding the client's worldview
3. Developing culturally appropriate intervention strategies and techniques

Experiential Approaches

encourage trainees to pay attention to their thoughts, feeling,s and actions in exploring their worldviews. It is a way to increase self-awareness and to identify and examine attitudes associated with diversity competence.