Answer Questions

Answers should be at least 100-175 words and reflect critical thought. Whenever possible, please try to relate the course content to real-world applications from your work experience. Be sure to cite all sources as well. Provide citation and reference to the material(s) you discuss alongside the question.

1. You have shared some very good thoughts in your post and I wanted to highlight one aspect in particular. In your post you indicated that one of the ways counselors can demonstrate multicultural competency is by, "... being completely open and receiving of a client's story." This is such an important point. We must be able to hear and seek to understand the client's story from their perspective and not through the filter of our own lived experiences - which will often includes judgmental elements which are not useful for the therapeutic process. How would you help someone to understand how to openly hear and receive someone's story?

2. I have attached a video Implicit Bias -- how it effects us and how we push through | Melanie Funchess | TEDxFlourCity https://youtu.be/Fr8G7MtRNlk , which discusses the reality of and dangers of implicit bias. This danger is a major concern for professional counselors and anyone working in the mental health field. After watching the video, how do you think that you can work to both understand and to mitigate the tendencies of your own implicit biases?

3. Thank you for taking the time to share some of your cultural experiences with us and how those experiences have been and continue to be different from the cultural norms of the United States. You are providing a "living example" of what we are discussing this week and I think we are very fortunate to have you in our class. When you think about your experiences and cultural interactions, what are the things that you wish people knew about you but they either do not take the time to understand or they do not care? Do you ever feel as though others discount your cultural identity and have the expectation that you must conform to the cultural norms of the dominant culture found in your community?