Professional helpers

4 Questions- 333 Word Each DQ

DQ 1

Professional helpers can employ several steps or tasks in the initial stages of a counseling session to the clients of different background to make them feel comfortable. This could be dependent on the nature of the counseling group under question, personal issues brought to the session by the clients, theoretical orientation of the leader, and the emotional levels of the leader. The first step a professional leader in a counseling session can take to ease the tension of the clients is educating them on the nature of the counseling session. This can entail telling the clients about what is to be covered in the session as well as what will not be part of the session. Providing a structure of the session provides a relief to the clients, especially those who are there for the first time (Diller, 2010).

The other step is integrating activities with low anxiety, which do not push the clients to go beyond their comfortable level by providing reassurance that helps in reducing the anxiety among clients. This can be done through teaching members some ways of participating in the sessions such as how to give their feedback and use of non-verbal cues in the session. With such activities of how to participate in the session, the clients are assured they are on the same level field to go through the session. For instance, if one has black clients, it would be worth educating them about the questions to expect, such as about their family background, status economically as well as what they do. This would be the same with Hispanic or white races where each client is made to understand about the session and the implications. Other differences such as beliefs would also be addressed. For instance, the setting of the venue could hinder some cultures from attending such as Asians, who believe hospitals are places where people die (Diller, 2010).

DQ 2

The best first step to take when dealing with culturally diverse clients in a counseling session is learning about the different cultures and their values. Culture can be defined as the values a group will share, which influence their behavior and activities. Culture could explain why some people might do things others may not. A culture can further be defined as a way that people of a particular group live their life every day. Some of the issues affected by culture can include family values, what food we eat and what we cannot eat, our goals in life, language or mode of communication, among other factors. Thus, in order to appreciate a culturally diverse group in order to help the clients, the first step should be learning about the different cultures. Culture will influence how people will interact and relate to other people of different cultures. Thus, understanding the diversity would help the professional in helping the clients understand each other as well as relate to each other freely.

Considering that, cultural diversity will determine how different people relate to each other as well as understand each other. For this to happen, the first step towards helping a culturally diversified group does not only involve the leader learning about the different cultures, but also the clients, as well. Therefore, when the leader or professional learns about the cultures, they should also be aware of this fact and learn too, in order to appreciate the differences. They should learn to appreciate cultural diversity as a value and not a difference and take the initiative of learning more about each other and working together. The best step when dealing with culturally diversified clients is appreciating diversity and learning more while educating clients, as well.

DQ 3

Racism is the belief that a race is better than another, or that race causes differences among people. For a long time, racism has continued to exits despite the efforts of eradicating it. There could be no definite reason for its existence to this day. However, considering it is rooted in beliefs, it becomes hard to eliminate. It is also rooted in culture, where one believes their culture is superior to others, thus they treat people of other races with lower regard than they would treat people from their culture. Considering culture does determine how people behave and relate to each other, racism continues to exist since people still hold some of the beliefs that create its existence. Therefore, people who feel that their race is superior to others will continue to treat others with a different attitude that subordinates other individuals. The fact that people still have these views, racism gains a resistance to change.

Additionally, history is taught in a way that one race is superior to the other. For instance, one learning that Africans Americans have come a long way to gain their equal rights demonstrates that they were subordinates to the white race. Additionally, African Americans are not including in history classes in schools. Therefore, all key attributes can be traced to one race, while others may have done a lot to contribute to the welfare of the country but received no recognition. This inequality continues to cause a resistance of racism from changing. With people having this notion about different races, racism becomes quite resistant to change.

DQ 4

In most cases, people that have been victim to racism may find it hard to talk about it due to the hurt feelings. Some of these feelings may be too hurting to allow such people to talk freely about racism and ethnicity. These feelings could remain hidden for a long time from the unconscious mind, and become quite difficult to bring out. “It is so hard to look at and talk about race because there is so much pain and hurt involved,” (Diller, 2010 P. 36). Even children will often pick up what they hear about other races from their parents or people around them. When racial tension exists, and people are either angry about it or so much hurt, talking about the issues becomes quite difficult. Eventually, when one talks about it, they will be afraid of bringing back hurt feelings. Therefore, many will choose to remain silent or talk very little about racism and ethnicity without giving much detail. This also acts as a way of distancing oneself from the issue to avoid hurting again (Diller, 2010).

Other reasons include anger that people go trough when they are hurt. Once hurt, such anger whether conscious or unconscious makes it hard to engage freely in talks about the issue. Additionally, people do not want to be labeled racists. Therefore, they avoid the whole issue altogether and choose not to talk about it. Discriminated races will want to make a good impression to their children in order to give them confidence. Therefore, to avoid making their children feel different from other races they choose not to talk about the issue.

Reference

Diller, J.V. (2010). Cultural Diversity: A Primer for the Human Services. New York, N.Y: Cengage Learning