CulturalImmersion

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Dec 6, 2023

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Running Head: CULTURAL IMMERSION 1 Cultural Immersion Eboni Thomas University of West Alabama 10/4/2020

CULTURAL IMMERSION 2 PART I: Cultural Immersion helps an individual to fit into a certain group of people and get a deeper understanding of their unfamiliar practices. With preconceived ideas about a specific group, it may affect the process of counseling and end up not being successful. In this particular case, the group that I worked with is the Latino-Americans, with Mexico being the specific Latino-American country. This group of people is associated with several stereotypes that may affect counseling sessions. Therefore, as a counselor has to ensure that they do away with preconceived ideas in order to be able to associate with a particular group ( Feltham & Hanley & Winter,2017) . A preconceived notion about the Latino-Americans that I had is on their level of education. Mexico being a developing country, there is an expectation that this group of people will mostly have informal education. Working with a group that only has informal education in the current world may be hard for a counselor like me. Another preconceived idea I had about this group is the high rate of crime due to unemployment. This, therefore, initially affected how I viewed many people from this group. After working with the group, I have found these generalized preconceived ideas to be wrong, and it is only a stereotype passed on by other people about the group. However, this does not have to be completely done away with. The best way to keep the biases at bay is to observe specific clients and confirm or disconfirm the preconceived ideas. One of the counseling issues I expect from this group is youths who are struggling with drugs. This is because the rate of drug selling in this society is very high, with some youths even been forced into drugs. When young people are forced into drugs, they may sometimes try to have their way out but may find it not successful. For this reason, the young people will come for counseling sessions on what they can do to get out of this bondage. Drug use in this population is

CULTURAL IMMERSION 3 also related to the high rate of unemployment. Many young people do not have a stable income source, and they end up getting into drug trafficking. This is because drug trafficking, at the end of the day, turns out to be more beneficial to them, and it is hard for them to leave such activity even though they face challenges. For this reason, it is expected they will come over for counseling to try and speak out the issues they are passing through. The first counseling approach to be used is the psychodynamic approach to counseling. This involves examining an individual to establish their current state of mind. This will help me as a counselor to establish where to start; from where this individual is currently at. According to the psychodynamic approach, the three states of the mind are; conscious, subconscious, and unconscious minds ( Feltham & Hanley & Winter,2017) . The second counseling approach to be used is the humanistic approach. In this one, I will help the client explore their own thoughts and feelings while assisting them to come out with self-solutions to their own problems. This approach believes that a client always has the solution to their problem, just that someone has to take them along through the journey. Another counseling approach to be used is the behavioral approach. This believes that behavior is acquired from the environment, and if it can be learned, it can, therefore, be unlearnt also (Mcleod, 2013). This one goes deep on the systematic approach by trying to connect small client details to their current problem. An example of this is the relationship between family, childhood, and the current issue; in this part, I will inquire a lot from the client. One of the ethical issues to be considered when counseling individuals from this group is client protection. When individuals are trying to turn away from drug trafficking, this is a risk of their lives. This is because the group that they work with is considering this exit of their partner as a threat to their business. For this reason, drug trafficking partners are the first threat to a

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CULTURAL IMMERSION 4 client's life. If client information goes out in any way, it may reach the drug trafficking partners who may end up harming my client. Therefore, it is ethical for me as a counselor to practice client protection while working with this group. Another legal issue that should be taken into consideration is credentialling. For a counselor to work with this particular group, they have to ensure that they are credible counselors. For a counselor's credibility, this is done by licensure, which a method by the state to protect the public from unqualified counselors. Sometimes, unqualified counselors may end doing more harm to the client than helping them out ( Feltham & Hanley & Winter,2017) . Therefore, I have to ensure that I am licensed before coming into offering counseling services in this community. It is also a legal requirement for me as a counselor to report any child abuse that has been detected in these groups of people. It is unethical and illegal for me as a counselor to protect child abuse offenders to promote my client's best interest. Therefore, I have to ensure that I stick to all these legal and ethical issues while serving this group of people. The client that I have served from this group may also turn out to be my client again in the future. It is my duty to ensure that I prepare for this future client in order to make the session more impactful to their situation. One way that I will use to prepare for a future client is to establish more research about the issues that people in this group pass through. With enough research, their challenges will not come as a surprise to me as a counselor, but I will be better positioned to understand their problem. Also, considering that I have been left with enough client information, I should use this client information to get to know the client more. Try and establish what fields of interest they have as a person and so many details about their lives. This will make it easier for me as a counsellor to form a good relationship with the client. With good client relationships, they will be more comfortable while having a counseling session, which works to

CULTURAL IMMERSION 5 my advantage while trying to help them out. Good client relationships generally create an easy time for the counselor during counseling sessions with the client ( Feltham & Hanley & Winter,2017) . Therefore, I have to ensure that the client relationship improves every time since this is not the first session I am having with my client. With this particular client, I learned the influence of the environment on the psychological issues that most people are going through unemployment, crime, drug trafficking, and child abuse. If such issues are rampantly reported to the media and other channels, these are the same issues that I should expect to address in most clients. This information learned from working with this client will go ahead and influence how I may work with future diverse clients. In order to handle this, as a counselor, I have to ensure that I am aware of the issues that are happening around me. This will create some preparedness since I know the majority of the issues that will require clients to come in for counseling. When I am prepared to address a certain problem as a counselor, it will contribute to more successful counseling sessions with the clients. The only way to ensure this whole plan works is to ensure I am up to date with issues happening around my location as a counselor. PART II: The case scenario is of a girl who has suffered a case of rape multiple times from her close relative. This has had a significant effect on the girl as she has changed her perspective on many things. The girl no longer feels safe around the opposite gender as she is afraid of getting sexually harassed. She now sees people of the other gender as monsters who are ready to attack anytime the girl is around them. For this reason, her performance at school has really changed.

CULTURAL IMMERSION 6 She cannot withstand male teachers in class and also a reason why she also cannot reach out to male teachers for help. The girl really needs help, for if she continues holding all this within her, it will overburden her. For this reason, it will also end up affecting so many people and things around her. One of the theories to be used is the behavioral theory. Based on the behavioral theory, we humans learn a lot from our surroundings, which shapes our perspective. Whatever someone has learned from the environment, there is a possibility to make the individuals unlearn this. This will be used on the rape victim to help them change their perspective about the people around them (Chakaryan, 2018). Since they learned this from their environment, they don't need to make it general hence affecting how they view everybody. The next theory to be applied in this case is the psychodynamic theory. This is all based on Freud's work, and therefore psychoanalysis has to be used. Psychoanalysis will help me examine the girl's state of mind while also working to establish any denial and repression passed on through her thoughts. In order to begin a counseling session with this client, I must ensure that I get to know much about them before even taking over the conversation later on. The client has to feel that it is all about. Although it may seem like the most basic thing for a counselor to do, it is very important to ensure the counseling sessions after this will be successful. How I start a counseling session is very important as it will shape the client's perspective about me as a person all through. Therefore, I will begin by kickstarting a conversation in which I give the client the opportunity to let off all that they hold. I will also try to make them as comfortable as I can for them to open up and give me all the information I need for counseling. There are special considerations that need to be taken for this specific client. Considering the client is a rape victim, and they no longer find it safe to be around people. One of the

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CULTURAL IMMERSION 7 solutions to be offered to this is taking out counseling sessions in quiet open places where she can spot some people around. This is because she is afraid of being around people due to sexual harassment on her before; for this reason, she may not be willing to sit with me alone in a room. Being in a room with me may only escalate her fears of sexual harassment and therefore affecting the counseling sessions. In the case that the counseling session has to be in a closed room, she may be accompanied by one of the friends or a female family member ( Jordan & Campbell & Follingstad, 2010) . The female friend or family member will just sit in the corner of the room as I do the counseling; this will make her feel safer. One of the ways to build rapport with such a client is by using empathy rather than sympathy. When sympathy comes into counseling, it makes the client even pity themselves, which may be driving them into a worsened condition than what they are already in ( Jordan & Campbell & Follingstad, 2010) . It is my duty as a counselor to be able to share the feelings of the other person, especially in this specific case of rape. Therefore, I should just listen without judging and get into her world so that she builds her trust in me. When she builds her trust, this will be better for the counseling sessions since she will be in a position to open up more with no fear of getting judged. A treatment plan, in this case, is established to help the clients meet their goals. The treatment first starts by getting the client information when listening to their whole narrative (Sandy, 2018). The next thing is to establish how their situation has influenced their mental health and diagnose any mental health problem they may have. The elimination of the diagnosed mental health problem realized becomes the goal of our counseling sessions with this client. The timeline for achieving this goal must be established to know when the counseling sessions should

CULTURAL IMMERSION 8 have impacted the client's condition. After setting all this in place, tracking client progress every time should be the only thing left. To be able to evaluate the client outcome, I have to assess the pretest and posttest results. The pretest assessment was done at the beginning of the counseling session before I came in to help the client. At the end of the long counseling session, I should also assess and get posttest results. Comparing the pretest and posttest results will help me establish whether the client's condition has improved, declined, or kept constant (Manthei, 2015).

CULTURAL IMMERSION 9 References Bagley, B., & Diambra, J. (2016). Counseling survivors of sexual assault - Counseling Today . Counseling Today. Retrieved 5 October 2020, from https://ct.counseling.org/2016/08/counseling-survivors-sexual-assault/ . Chakaryan, H. (2018). Effective ways to approach sexual assault response - Counseling Today . Counseling Today. Retrieved 5 October 2020, from https://ct.counseling.org/2018/07/effective-ways-to-approach-sexual-assault-response/ . Feltham, C., Hanley, T., & Winter, L. A. (Eds.). (2017). The SAGE handbook of counselling and psychotherapy . Sage. Jordan, C. E., Campbell, R., & Follingstad, D. (2010). Violence and women's mental health: the impact of physical, sexual, and psychological aggression. Annual review of clinical psychology , 6 . Manthei, R. (2015). Evaluating Counselling Outcome. New Zealand Journal of Counselling , 35 (1). Mcleod, S. (2013). Psychology Perspectives | Simply Psychology . Simplypsychology.org. Retrieved 5 October 2020, from https://www.simplypsychology.org/perspective.html#:~:text=The%20five%20major %20perspectives%20in,%2C%20behavioral%2C%20cognitive%20and %20humanistic.&text=Below%20is%20a%20summary%20of,sometimes%20called %20perspectives)%20in%20psychology .

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CULTURAL IMMERSION 10 Sandy. (2018). Guide to Creating Mental Health Treatment Plans | ICANotes . ICANotes. Retrieved 5 October 2020, from https://www.icanotes.com/2018/08/24/guide-to-creating- mental-health-treatment-plans/#:~:text=and%20Privacy%20Policy.-,What%20Is%20the %20Purpose%20of%20a%20Treatment%20Plan%3F,way%20towards%20a%20healthier %20condition .

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