Cultural Self-Awareness Essay

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PSY: 325 10 February 25, 2013 Cultural Self-Awareness The United States has been known as a melting pot and within recent years its’ diversity has increased significantly. With the growing diversity of the population, mental health professionals have developed a fourth dynamic within the field of clinical/counseling psychology which is multiculturalism. This new force is seen as a way to strengthen existing models that health professionals currently practice. It allows these existing models- psychoanalysis, behaviorism, and humanism- to become more conscious and sensitive to various cultural backgrounds (Pomerantz, 2013). According to Pomerantz (2013), cultural self-awareness is the process of a clinical psychologist recognizing that his or her own cultural perspective is unique. During the cultural self-awareness process, a psychologist may experience feelings of discomfort because they are identifying prejudices he or she has towards certain groups that they may not know they developed. However, even though the process may be difficult, if a psychologist is able to examine these beliefs then the negative experience a client might experience can be minimized. Upon examining my cultural self-awareness I discovered that my experiences with alcoholism could impact my future relationship with clients. There are several members of my extended family that suffer from alcoholism; looking at their family history and upbringing there would be no indication that alcoholism would be in their future. For instance, my brother who is twenty-six years of age began excessively drinking at the age of twenty. My father suddenly passed away in 2006 which began his issues with alcohol abuse. My parents and brother were coming home from his high school graduation when my father had a massive heart attack causing them to have a car accident. Each member of my family coped

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