Culturally Responsive Practitioner Reflective Essay

Reflection 1

A culturally responsive practitioner is a clinician that not only addresses the culture of the individuals they interact with but integrates culture to provide opportunities of the best outcomes of therapeutic interventions. To practice cultural responsivity, a clinician should incorporate ethical principles of beneficence, nonmaleficence, justice, and respect for autonomy across all parts of the therapeutic intervention process. A culturally responsive clinician is constantly aiming to address implicit biases they may have about individuals based on past experiences to eliminate barriers that may present across prevention, assessment, and intervention required in a speech-language pathologist’s scope of practice. To do this,

This class provided me a framework in my understanding of cultural responsivity that has been strengthened through my graduate studies. I appreciate that each graduate class has incorporated discussions of culture and how it impacts therapeutic intervention. Because of this, I have learned how culture impacts intervention across the competencies included in the scope of practice of speech-language pathology. I have a more concrete understanding of how unique therapeutic intervention is from one client to the next due to their culture. My clinical experience has given me opportunities to work on applying an individual’s beliefs and interests to create individualized tasks that would best benefit therapeutic outcomes. This is a skill that I will continually practice as I further my professional career so that I can practice cultural

Although in my undergraduate experience I understood the importance of how culture might shape beliefs on impairment, disability, and intervention, I was uneducated in the importance of cultural considerations in each part of the therapeutic process. Graduate coursework has enabled me to think critically about the implications of how culture influences my clinical decision making. One concept that I will always practice as a speech-language pathologist is to be respectfully inquisitive about an individuals’ culture through personal research and eliminating assumptions about clients that I interact with. I think in learning more about an individual, I will be able to provide the most appropriate care for clients. I also think learning more about an individual’s culture will give me a better perspective on how to interact with caregivers and family members and utilize effective and respectful counseling methods when necessary. In continuing to further my education about culture, I will aim to be a culturally responsive speech-language pathologist. across all populations in my scope of