Introduction Being culturally self-aware is important in everyday life and in work. Cultural self-awareness refers to having the ability to step back and reflect the values that are specific to our own culture but also the culture of those we work with and with those who help as mental health professionals. For example, my belief system might be different from my co-worker or from a client. A second thing that we as professionals need to remember is that cultural diversity has it place in our line of work. Cultural diversity deals with nationality, race, color, gender, creed, religion and age (Merchant, n.d.). Because we have defined cultural diversity we have acknowledged that diversity has an influence on our behavior with enhances individual performance and company performance with the community at large. For example, would a client go to a clinic where there are no people who are like them or would they travel a longer distance to see a counselor who is like them because they have similar backgrounds. Discuss how your experiences of privilege, oppression as well as …show more content…
Generally speaking Hispanic families are patriarchal, gender roles are specific, and are a devout group of churchgoing people (Vacc et al., 2003). In my family both of my parents were authoritarian and they both took the role of provider and protector which made them egalitarian. When it comes to sexual behavior we were taught to be both sentimental, gentle, independent, brave, strong, and rational which traditionally is divided by gender but was not in my family. For example, both the girls and the boys were taught how to cook/housework and have a working knowledge of how to take of a car i.e. checking the tires and the