Becoming A Culturally Competent Counselor Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Becoming A Culturally Competent Counselor - Essay Example I would describe my cultural identity development at the current time using the racial/cultural identity development. The first stage of my cultural identity development started with conformity. I accepted the dominant beliefs and customs being practiced by most people, and admittedly, I have discarded some of my own less popular and less dominant beliefs and practices. As a result, there was a certain dissonance because of the conflicting messages and observations inconsistent with my views of my culture and the dominant culture (Sanchez, n.d). I questioned the dominant beliefs that I conformed with previously. I saw how these dominant practices are unfairly damaging to my culture. After the stage of dissonance, I learned to completely embrace my cultural values and to reject the dominant beliefs. I also felt shame for abandoning my beliefs just because they were not popular. In the process, I regained pride in my culture and my beliefs. However, following the acceptance of my minor ity beliefs, I went through the stage of introspection where I learned to assess both minority and dominant beliefs and to integrate them into my life. After going through such process, I now developed an inner sense of security in my beliefs; I learned to accept people’s peculiarities and culture even if they were so different from the rest of the world (Sanchez, n.d). I learned that it is possible for the dominant and the minority beliefs to coexist, to take the strengths of each aspect and apply them in one’s life. Considering the nature of my cultural experience, five strengths I will bring to multicultural counseling will be my openness, my honesty, my sense of respect for other cultures, my perceptiveness, and my creativeness. I am open to people’s peculiarities and preferences; their having another culture or belief different from mine would not interfere in