Allison is a 28 year old White Caucasian who is in her first-year doctoral student, doing a practicum at a community agency in a predominantly Latino neighborhood in a large urban area. Allison has a client called Carmen. Carmen is a 19 year-old Puerto Rican. Carmen and her family moved from Puerto Rico when she was 10 years old. Carmen is single, lives with her parents, and attends a nearby community college. For several sessions, Allison and Carmen had been looking on career options that Carmen has after she obtains her associates degree. In one of these sessions, Allison reviewed with Carmen various career options. After each suggestion that Allison gave to Carmen, Carmen would respond that she is interested, but she needs to consult …show more content…
Because of her lack of knowledge and experience of Carmen’s culture, Allison assumed that Carmen shares similar values. Corey et al. (2011) called this assumption the “tunnel vision”. Corey et al. (2011) referred to the tunnel vision as a perception of reality based on the assumption that all cultures are basically the same (p. 109). In the case of Allison, she assumed that Carmen shared her American values about women’s independence of choice. Allison imposed her own values on Carmen based on what she believes to be a feminist, disregarding Carmen’s values around the role of women in her …show more content…
Allison showed lack of awareness about Carmen’s cultural values. Allison should seek training about counseling Latinos. Allison’s practicum is in an agency located in a predominately Latino neighborhood. Carmen might not return to counseling with Allison, but Allison is likely to have another Latino client. Thus, receiving appropriate training about counseling Latinos would prepare Allison for future clients that she would encounter. The four dimensions of training that Corey et al. (2011) recommended are: self-exploration, didactic course work, internship, and experiential approaches (p. 145). There are various options that Allison has to educate herself around providing effective and ethically appropriate counseling with Latinos. Another course of action that can be taken besides receiving training is consulting with her supervisor at the agency. Supervisors advise students and supervisees around counseling concerns. Allison, as a graduate student doing her practicum, does not have much experience in the counseling profession. Asking a supervisor for advisory around Carmen’s case can help Allison receive an experienced perspective on how to counsel Carmen in the healthier way
Throughout history, women were challenged with inequality and discrimination within a patriarchal society such voting in presidential elections, owning property and having job opportunities. During the last century, there have been many achievements that guarantee women rights and equality. For example, the Nineteenth Amendment gave women the right to vote in 1920 and the Equal Employment Opportunities Law prohibited employers from discriminating against gender in 1988.1 In her essay, “Pink Think”, Lynn Peril argues about the pressure on women that follow the rules of femininity.2 She describes the word “Pink Think”, as ideas and attitudes of proper women behavior.2 Although there are still some aspects of “Pink Think” culture that is still recognized today, the shifts in cultural and political events in recent centuries have increased attention to women’s issues against social injustice. Nevertheless, Peril neglects the fact that women today are living in a totally different time than how she pictures it because of the newly evolved cultural attitudes of gender roles and identity, labor, and living the American Dream.
In “In Living Color: Race and American Culture”, Michael Omi claims that racism still takes place in America’s contemporary society. According to Omi, media and popular culture shape a segregating ideology by giving a stereotypical representation of black people to the public, thus generating discrimination between races (Omi 115:166). In “Bad Feminist: Take One”, Roxane Gay discusses the different roles that feminism plays in our society. She argues that although some feminist authors and groups try to create a specific image of the feminist approach, there is no definition that fully describe feminism and no behaviors that can make someone a good feminist or a bad feminist (Gay 304:306). Both authors argue
At the end of the previous school year, Carol, and her daughter’s teachers noticed that Carol’s daughter was not progressing in her studies, and an evaluation conducted by the child study team revealed that she had a specific learning disability. An IEP meeting was scheduled, and conducted. The determination was made to place Carol’s daughter in the same resource room as Carol’s client Jody, for half of the day. Carol instantly realized that this decision put her in a predicament where a dual relationship would be created. She would then cross a clear boundary, and become a parent of a classmate, as well as the professional she has already established herself as to Jody and her parents. This would undoubtedly lead to instances in which both her client, and the client’s family would be interacting with her at both school functions and on class trips. She knew that allowing this to happen was against the BACB Guidelines for Responsible Conduct for Behavior Analysts. Carol voiced her opposition and explained the ethical quandary to those attending the IEP meeting, and what would occur if her daughter was placed in the same room with her client. Carol stated that she would speak with her supervisor, but it was probable that he would determine that she would not be able to continue working with Jody. Carol felt that having to become accustomed to another behavior analyst
Often times, women are treated poorly or unequally. She brings up the issue of interfering with other cultures when we disagree with how they are being treated; it is difficult to interfere because we don’t want to “impose our will”.
The Latino community, from immigrating to United States born Latinos are often known to be depressed. Depression is a medical illness that causes a constant feeling of sadness and lack of interest, it affects how the person feels, behaves and thinks. Many Latinos rely on their extended family, community, traditional healers, or churches for help during a health crisis. As a result, many Latinos with mental illnesses often go without professional mental treatment. But why is it that Latinos are so reluctant to receiving help? Sheila Dichoso states that, “there are only 29 Latino mental-health professionals for every 100,000 Latinos in the United States, compared to 173 non-Hispanic white providers per 100,000 non-Hispanic whites.” Coming along this information completely amazed me, knowing that there is a vast difference between Latino and non-Hispanic white mental health providers is shocking.
It is important to include cultural issues in the helping process to be more effective. We also need cultural competence because the U.S. is becoming more diverse. Therefore with diversity comes different beliefs, norms, and values. Eurocentric values dominate sciences and began cultural universals which puts the clash of dominate and non-dominate cultural behaviors in motion. In 1996 the NASW Code of Ethics increased the recognition of cultural competence. It is important to know diversity exist within ethnic and cultural groups because social workers need to know that relationships between helping professionals and clients may be strained. This happens because of the distrust between groups. Another important aspect is that the professional realizes their own values, biases, and beliefs. The reason for this is because they must value diversity to start with and understand the dynamics of difference. Culturally competent practitioners have to go through developmental process of using their own culture as a starting point to meet all behaviors. Striving for cultural competence is a long term process of development. The literature on cultural competence is theoretical and conceptual. They have not been evaluated in a systematic way. Roughly there are 2 million Native americans in the U.S. Which survive decimating disease, over-repressed in child welfare system, suffer from health problems, and are among the poorest people in the United States. Working with them clearly falls within the social work clearly mandate to serve vulnerable and oppressed clients. However, we do not know how many people from this group is actually receiving help from social workers. Even though it is important to train social workers to provide care in th...
Antonio, a 19 year old Mexican-American originally from Dallas, Texas, is the son of undocumented parents who came to the United States to achieve the American Dream. His parents instilled in him that the White majority were a superior ethnicity and encouraged him to speak and act White in order to achieve the same life White American’s have. Because he received a full-ride scholarship, Antonio moved in Minnesota to attend college. Due to two emotional incidents during his freshman year, he is now considering therapy. These included being called a “sell out” by White peers because he was he was trying to act and sound White and having a professor write on a A-quality paper that he “did well for a Latino.” Antonio now questions his parent’s
As much as men are working, so are women, but ultimately they do not face the same obstacles. For example, “Even if one subscribes to a solely economic theory of oppression, how can one ignore that over half of the world's workers are female who suffer discrimination not only in the workplace, but also at home and in all the areas sex-related abuse” (Moraga 98). This gives readers a point of view in which women are marginalized in the work place, at home, and other areas alike. Here Moraga gives historical accounts of Chicana feminists and how they used their experiences to give speeches and create theories that would be of relevance. More so, Moraga states how the U.S. passes new bills that secretly oppress the poor and people of color, which their community falls under, and more specifically, women. For instance, “The form their misogyny takes is the dissolution of government-assisted abortions for the poor, bills to limit teenage girls’ right to birth control ... These backward political moves hurt all women, but most especially the poor and "colored." (Moraga 101). This creates women to feel powerless when it comes to control one’s body and leads them to be oppressed politically. This places the government to act as a protagonist, and the style of writing Moraga places them in, shines more light to the bad they can do, especially to women of color. Moraga uses the words, “backward moves”
Cultural Competence Understanding culture is an important aspect of being a social worker; this does not mean learning common cultural traits is of great significance to the social work profession. “Consider the second-generation Japanese-American social worker whose practice consists of Mexican-American and African-American families. Memorizing national traits or cultural rituals would be interesting and informative, but ultimately these would be an inaccurate basis on which to “know” these particular families” (Dorfman, 1996, p. 33). When understanding cultural competence, it is important to learn from the client about their culture in order to serve them in the most helpful and efficient way possible. There is a major drawback to memorizing information, and that is, this information will not give you a real understanding of who your client is and what life experiences they have personally faced.
The message of Lugones and Spelman in Have We Got a Theory for You! Feminist Theory, Cultural Imperialism and the Demand for “The Woman’s Voice,” is that the entire worldwide experience of women cannot be universally articulated. Blanket definition of woman is impossible due to the many characteristics of women that make the gender so diverse, specifically race and economic status in society. “The women’s voices most likely to come forth and the women’s voices mostly likely to be heard are, in the United States anyway, those of white, middle-class, heterosexual Christian women” (Lugones and Spelman 21). Since “feminist theory” has been established without encompassing the inherently different experiences of non-white/non-Anglo women “much of the theory has failed to be relevant to the lives of women who are not white or middle class” (Ibid. 21). This displacement of a large population of the world’s women from feminist theory is extremely threatening to the development of a woman’s voice, in so far as this voice is key to fighting the battles that feminism sets out to fight: the end of re...
In social work, a social worker has to come to the client’s level and start from there. The client does not have to come to the social workers level. In order for this to happen the social worker has to know the importance of culture, race, gender, sexual, diversity and other forms of diversity to make the best decision for choosing a type of intervention. Understanding the client’s culture, race, gender, sexual diversity and other form of diversity is important because they affect each person differently. An example, Roberto is Latino and in their culture they believe in machomism, so this is something his social worker needs to know when addressing Roberto or someone of the Latino culture. Hispanic women bring machomism
Ethnic minorities seeking services should have access to culturally sensitive social workers, who acknowledge and confront practical dilemmas when working with increasing numbers of culturally diverse people in the community. Professionals working with minority groups, “must provoke moral sensibility, political consciousness, and social action” (Aponte, Rivers, & Wohl, 1995, p. ix). It is imperative f...
Multiracial Feminism: Recasting the Chronology of Second Wave Feminism introduces ideas by Becky Thompson that contradict the “traditional” teachings of the Second Wave of feminism. She points out that the version of Second Wave feminism that gets told centers around white, middle class, US based women and the central problem being focused on and rallied against is sexism. This history of the Second Wave does not take into consideration feminist movements happening in other countries. Nor does it take into consideration the feminist activism that women of color were behind, that centered not only on sexism, but also racism, and classism as central problems as well. This is where the rise of multiracial feminism is put to the foreground and
...a hard time representing our entire country’s population in a few sentences, or even a few pages. The American cultural system of today is far different than the culture of the 1940’s, and my experience as a Southerner is quite different than that of someone from New England. Multiculturalism seeks to protect cultures from extinction, it is very dangerous to over-simplify a complex cultural system and identify it by its most extreme practices. Feminism and multiculturalism do have some of the same goals; chiefly, equality of rights for all human beings. It is true that some efforts of multiculturalism counter feminism’s goals to empower women, but I do not think that this must always be the case. Cultural sensitivity is not enough; we must consider cultural practices, the workings of the cultural system that supports them, and how that system itself came about.
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) can be effective with working with Margarita who is Puerto Rican because this approach uses a person's belief and perspective as part of the approach of self-awareness. The approach would give Margarita the ability to learn about her issue in way that is neither alarming nor difficult but a learning experiences. CBT approach can help Margarita manage her surroundings that cause her emotional