Part 1: Being Culturally Competent
As a future clinician, being culturally competent is extremely important. The United States is comprised of diverse cultures and ethnicities. Unfortunately, each culture has its struggles and obstacles they face day to day. Every stressor that an individual goes through can affect them to the where they may need to seek out help from a professional. These individuals have different values and beliefs that they developed from their families and or experiences. When seeking out therapy, these individuals may want someone who understands their values and beliefs. Being able to find someone who understands their beliefs and values would assist with creating a better relationship between client and therapist. Being able to have this understanding, a therapist does not need to identify a part of the culture
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For someone who does not already know the values and beliefs of that person and their culture, a therapist should know they must research to provide for the client’s needs. As mentioned before, many different cultures require different needs and although some cultures appear to be similar, there are differences from person to person. Each person may have different experiences in their culture. One person might be fully immersed in the culture and hold the values and beliefs to a higher standard, or someone may not hold those values at all even though they identify as someone a part of that culture. Culture may play a big role in someone’s life or it may not, despite their role, a therapist should have an idea of how they meet the person's needs with keeping in mind the person’s cultural beliefs and values. Being a therapist, one should know that there are multiple cultures, and although the therapist may not know and is