INTERVIEWING AND COUNSELING TECHNIQUES.
Studies now show that the personal values and multicultural beliefs of the practitioner/helper are essential in interpersonal relationships with clients and fellow workers who come from diverse backgrounds. Therefore it is important for the helper to develop, have, and maintain a high level of self-awareness and exhibit cultural competence as much as possible. This is often developed through knowledge of one’s own “self-awareness”. The development of such awareness is usually a process not a single event and does not occur at all without some conscious thought being given to the subject.
GOAL: To increase ones self-awareness by examining several issues that can have an impact on the professional, personal, and workplace relationship process. This will be demonstrated by the completion of a written paper that addresses each of the stated questions.
Questions to be answered:
1. What determines human prejudice and how are prejudices and stereotypes fostered?
2. How culturally sensitive to those different than you do you feel you are? Describe how self-actualized you believe you are currently?
3. Do you believe that people can change in areas of prejudice, refuting stereotypes? If so, what does it take? For what reasons?
4. With which types of people and /or behaviors are you least comfortable/capable of working? Describe.
5. With which types of people and /or behaviors are you least comfortable/capable of working? Describe.
6. Why do you believe the country is seemingly faced with more and more issues involving race?
7. What value if any, do you see in the RESPECTFUL Model and how can it aid counselors?
NOTES
It must include an introductory paragraph which contains the thesis or topic sentence.
The body must contain the information addressing each of the above questions, it must be in a narrative format.
The concluding paragraph should summarizes the main points of the paper. Interviewing and Counseling Techniques Essay Paper
Interviewing and Counseling Techniques
Introduction
Interacting with colleagues and clients openly and positively provides a positive environment to communicate in a supportive manner. In the workplace, people can show compassion and understanding of each other without becoming personally involved. People need to become more self-aware in order to question their own awareness, beliefs, and values and how this affects their individual lives, work, and interactions with others (Skidmore et al., 2018). Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to examine various issues likely to impact the professional, individual and workplace relationship processes, in order to improve self-awareness.
BUY A PLAGIARISM-FREE PAPER HERE
Prejudices are the feelings and attitudes that individuals tend to have regarding members of other groups. On the other hand, stereotypes are cognitive representations regarding how specific group members are similar or different from other group members (Brandt & Crawford, 2019). Basically, prejudices and stereotypes occur partly from normal human thinking because people tend to categorize information into mental groupings. Therefore, prejudices and stereotypes can be termed as mental mistakes they are a result of adaptive processes. People, therefore, tend to use prejudices and stereotypes to gain some benefit over some individuals or groups and this may, therefore, lead to prejudices and stereotypes being deeply-rooted (Brandt & Crawford, 2019). It is therefore clear that the cognitive adaptive processes regarding individuals and groups of peoples can end up having serious negative consequences. For example, prejudices and stereotypes may lead to mistreatment of certain groups of people.
I feel I am culturally competent and open to embracing different cultures. This is because I interact with people from different cultures without any problem. Cultural awareness involves being open to embracing diversity and willing to learn new experiences. I am always willing to seek new experiences and make new friends. At the workplace, I treat those different from me, in the same manner, I treat those similar to me. For instance, when handling patients, I treat all of them equally regardless of one’s background, culture and appearance.
Self-actualization refers to a person’s fulfillment or realization of one’s ability, potentialities, and talents, as well as one’s true self. I believe I have not yet reached self-actualization. This is because I am not aware of all my abilities and potentialities. However, I believe I am self-aware of how I react when I am handling people who are different from me. For example, when I am handling the elderly indigenous patients, even though I do not treat them differently, I automatically wonder if they can communicate using English without challenges. I am aware of this reaction and I need to work on changing my thoughts and reactions about older adults from indigenous communities.
People can change prejudices and stereotypes as well. For example, prejudices and stereotypes can be reduced by creating closer connections and interacting with members belonging to different groups. Interacting with people from different groups gives one an opportunity to learn about different people and become more positive towards them (FitzGerald et al., 2019). For instance, when people from different cultures interact, they might discover that they are not very different and embrace each other’s differences. Secondly, education can be used to reduce prejudices and stereotypes. People can be educated about the importance of embracing those different and negative impacts of prejudices and stereotypes (FitzGerald et al., 2019). Interviewing and Counseling Techniques Essay Paper
The types of people I am least comfortable working with are those who look down upon those different from them. I am not comfortable with people who bully others based on their differences or positions. For example, some coworkers at times hold stereotypes and prejudices against student nurses as well as new graduate nurses. They tend to view student nurses and new graduate nurses as incompetent. They sometimes assign them more tasks and overwork them. I am not comfortable with these behaviors and I hope such stereotypes and prejudices will eventually end. I am also uncomfortable working with people who are racists.
America is faced with issues involving race because racism in the country has existed since the colonial period when white Americans had many social and legal rights and privileges when compared to blacks and other minorities. This indicates that racism is deeply rooted in the country. Up to date, people still hold racist traits. For instance, in the workplace, some ethnicities may feel that other races are enjoyed better privileges even when they are not. This is due to the deep-rooted racism in the country.
The RESPECTFUL model is very valuable in counseling. The model provides therapists and counselors with the ability to progress suitably, holistically, and ethically while providing therapy to clients (Beck & Kulzer, 2018). When counselors use the model, they avoid imposing their personal values and beliefs on their clients; use suitable and respectful language during counseling, and respect boundaries and cultural diversity during therapy sessions (Handtke et al., 2019).
Conclusion
Prejudices and stereotypes occur partly from normal human thinking because people tend to categorize information into mental groupings. People can change their prejudices and stereotypes by interacting with people who are different and also through education. I am always willing to seek new experiences, interact with people from different cultures and make new friends at the workplace and this means that I am culturally aware. However, I have not reached self-actualization and this is an aspect I will keep on improving. The RESPECTFUL model is very valuable in counseling as it enables counselors to provide respectful and culturally competent therapy to clients.
References
Beck, K., & Kulzer, J. (2018). Teaching Counseling Microskills to Audiology Students: Recommendations from Professional Counseling Educators. Seminars in hearing, 39(1), 91–106. https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0037-1613709.
Brandt, M. J., & Crawford, J. T. (2019). Studying a heterogeneous array of target groups can help us understand prejudice. Current directions in psychological science, 28(3), 292–298. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721419830382.
FitzGerald, C., Martin, A., Berner, D. et al. (2019). Interventions designed to reduce implicit prejudices and implicit stereotypes in real-world contexts: a systematic review. BMC Psychol, 7(29). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-019-0299-7
Handtke O, Schilgen B, Mösko M. (2019). Culturally competent healthcare – A scoping review of strategies implemented in healthcare organizations and a model of culturally competent healthcare provision. PLoS ONE, 14(7): e0219971. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0219971.
Skidmore, E. R., Swafford, M., Juengst, S. B., & Terhorst, L. (2018). Self-Awareness and Recovery of Independence With Strategy Training. The American journal of occupational therapy: official publication of the American Occupational Therapy Association, 72(1), 7201345010p1–7201345010p5. https://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.2018.023556. Interviewing and Counseling Techniques Essay Paper