Ethnocentric Monoculturalism And First-Hand Experience Analysis

Ethnocentric Monoculturalism and First-Hand Experience The United States is a large country the has varies cultures and ethnicities within it, with it historic origins of counseling and mental health are deeply imbedded in the Western cultures (Sue & Sue, 2016). As a counselor, is it important to take into consideration the client’s ethnic and cultural background. Living the majority of my life in a border city, where the vast majority of the population is Latino and eventually moving North, I was able to experience multiple times ethnocentric monoculturalism, which is described as “much broader than the concept of racial oppression,” (Sue & Sue, 2016, pp. 155). Understanding ethnocentric monoculturalism and reflecting on my personal experiences,

As I have been in situations where my race was viewed as the inferior race, I have considered my race and ethnicity to be superior in other ways. As counseling is not a considered to be a one size fits all, it is important to avoid being bias with the clients as it can have a negative effect on the client. As mental health is shaped an influenced by ethnocentric monocultural construct, we are shaped by our past experiences. In my personal experience with my father, I felt disappointed that people could be so naive and hurt that my father, an honest, educated, hardworking man was discriminated against because of his physical characteristics. It may be difficult to ignore hearing stereotypes and prejudice against a certain culture, race or religion, nevertheless, as a counselor it is important to be culturally diverse. I will take my personal experience and take into consideration when interacting with another from a different race than mine to avoid as much discrimination as

I was able to conclude that if not addressed in an appropriate manner, these past experiences could have a negative impact on counseling session with clients and make it difficult to build rapport with them. I will take be self-aware in not being bias against other who are culturally different than me and work harder in understanding their background. In order to decrease ethnocentric monoculturalism education should be incorporated with certain behaviors the cause the ‘blindness’ and ‘invisibility’ of oppression (Mleck,