Increasing Cultural Competence
Name
Institution
Increasing Cultural Competence
Sexuality and religion are among the most important social factors in our daily life. For this reason, I took the Implicit Association Test (IAT) on sexuality and Implicit Association Test (IAT) on religion. For the sexuality test, my results were described as “automatic preference for Straight people over Gay people.” For the religion test, the results described me as an “automatic preference for Christianity over Islam. ” My automatic responses for both sexuality and religion were described as “slight,” “moderate,” “strong,” or “no preference.” One of my main strengths is the ability to work with people from different religions without any form of discrimination. I am also able to work with people with different sexual orientations. However, I have the automatic preference for Christianity and straight people, a factor that I need to change to be more accommodating, and especially when different religions and sexual orientations are involved.
Religious discrimination is common in current society. Having automatic preferences for certain religious groups is likely to affect the effectiveness of a counselor negatively. It is, therefore, necessary that I grow my cultural competence as far as accommodation of different religions is concerned. Nthontho (2017) suggests that a lack of understanding about beliefs, customs, and rituals of other religious groups is the main reason for lack of diversity as far as religion is concerned. Therefore, I will focus on studying different religions to increase my understanding of their beliefs and practices. People with little understanding of other beliefs tend to be suspicious and intolerant of those with different religious orientations, and therefore studying will help me become religious diverse. Trying to interact with people from different religions will also help me develop a warm feeling about their practices and beliefs. Increasing my understanding of sexual orientations will also help me develop a warm feeling towards people of a different gender. I will also train myself, not too different people based on their gender identification and sexual orientation. These steps will help me enhance my cultural competence as a counselor.
In the next few months, I will attend diversity-focused conferences to get formal training of religion and sexuality-related issues. Such conferences are essential in understanding different religions and sexual orientations. The training will help me reduce religion and sexuality biases and, therefore, easily work with people from different cultures. Reading widely about the two cultural issues will also be necessary. Interacting with people from different cultures through arranging research projects, practicum experience, and internships with people from a different culture will also increase my cultural competence. I will volunteer to work in different religious institutions and community centers that promote diversity in society. Interacting and discussing with such people with changing my views about different cultures. Learning much about my cultural biases will help me understand myself better and work on the biases. Values, beliefs, and worldviews are rooted in communication and language (Danso, 2018). To increase my cultural competence, with will work on improving communication and working on language barriers. This will help me communicate easily with people from different religious groups.
Mensah (2019) notes that it is important for the counselor to understand the client’s background, belief system, and ethnicity. Effective counselors need to be culturally sensitive, and their work should accommodate different opinions, attitudes, and values. As a result, the counselor needs to understand their cultural biases since such will help them working towards cultural competence. When the counselors understand their cultural biases, they will work towards becoming culturally sensitive. Further, they will understand situations in which their biases are likely to impact their effectiveness and avoid such situations negatively. They better understand how to handle sensitive cultural issues in the counseling process.
References
Danso, R. (2018). Cultural competence and cultural humility: A critical reflection on key cultural diversity concepts. Journal of Social Work, 18(4), 410-430.
Mensah, E. K. (2019). Assessing Multicultural Competence of Counsellors in Public Universities in Ghana. Journal of Education and E-Learning Research, 6(3), 142-148.
Nthontho, M. A. (2017). Is it possible to be accommodative of other religions as a school principal?. Journal of Religious Education, 65(1-3), 35-50.