Multicultural Awareness Essay

The purpose of this paper is to analyze oneself by taking the Multicultural-Self Assessment and learn about the â€Å"Other† of one self. This will help one to associate with clients from different cultures. Multicultural Self-Assessment Summary The results of the Multicultural Self-Assessment were not surprising to me. Thirteen of the answers were five (5), which is not surprising to me because I was taught by my family and I to accept â€Å"Others† and not to judge anyone if you do not want to be judge yourself. What two four’s (4) were not want I thought I would answer but I had to think very hard on it. I do like to listen to others ideas to a certain point. The point would be when the idea is against a certain group and that’s where I draw line or it just benefits one certain group I will also draw the line there. I have learned to be much opened mind in the area of different cultural in our society and in the rest of the world. My behavior is the same with enter acting with peers, strangers, family, and co-workers. I refuse to change because of someone’s culture. The saying â€Å"What you see is what you get† (Flip Wilson, 1960) that is how I see myself. Story of Being â€Å"Other† The story of â€Å"Other† did not come until I went away for the first time to the University of New Mexico. I notice that there were many different organizations that were comprised of different races and cultures. I did not realize that there were people who did not like certain races or cultures. I was walking by my dorm and this young man who I see around campus before stopped me and ask me why my people (Mexican) come to this country and take away jobs of white people . I had to take a double take when he told me that and turn around and replied what type of jobs is being taken away from his people? He answered all types. I was angry but remained calm and told him that most of the jobs are in the fields, washing dishes, maid, and gardeners. He went on to say that those jobs are for them and in which I said I have not seen anyone out in the hot sun picking crops for more than  eight hours. The young man told me to return to my country and stop taking up space that belong to his people. I have never been so offend so much in my life that it shocked me that I did not realize that I was being discriminated against . I finally opened my mind and eyes as to what is going on and finally told him that I will never leave this country because it’s where I was born here. Then he went on to say that he was going to call ICE on me and I told him to go ahead and that I was half-Mexican and Native American. He then stop talking to me and started too walked away and turned around and said â€Å"Dirty Mexican.† This situation made me open my eyes and I started to realize that within our society we need to understand different cultures and races and give the respect and honor them. â€Å"Other† and Multicultural-Self Assessment Reflection Being the â€Å"Other† and taking the Multicultural-Self Assessment has a great meaning to me, because of the up-bring I am the person that I am now days. With the help of my parents and my religious education that I had made me see that the world is filled with different types of people and one can learn many things about the different cultural and one can learn something from those cultures. I enjoy to meeting people and I do in my work and I have enjoyed working with everyone. I was not surprise that in the result of receiving so many 5 in the assessment. I have been told that I make friends easy and accept everyone without judgment. I am not saying I am perfect but I do have some faults. Next Steps The action that I would take is to use Emic when it comes to dealing with one’s client. Emic approaches allow for the professional counselor to conceptualize the client as an individual and attend to cultural variations and culturally specific interventions (Hays & Gray, 2014). To be opened minded towards a person who has different beliefs and cultural. One must be able to work with clients that come from different cultures and to be able use knowledge of their cultures to can help one as a professional to help his or her client. Statement of Counseling Identity This one was a little harder to think about but my Statement of Counseling.  Identity would be â€Å"I am the person who you will fire after you are on your right path .† I want to be known for the counselor that her client does not need anymore. To let my clients know what to expect from me as their counselor. Explain that I am neither a psychologist nor a license clinical social worker (Coppock, 2012). Importance of Multicultural Awareness and Competence in Counseling Multicultural Awareness is very handy tool for a counselor; it shows where how one interacts with different cultures. This tool can show what one’s weakness is and one’s strong area is. Using the assessment is used then one is in competence to their clients. It must be able to fulfill the right outcome to one’s clients with using any judgmental or basis. References Coppock , Timothy E. (March 1, 2012) â€Å"A Closer Look at Developing Counselor Identity,† Counseling Today: Retrieve from www ct.counseling.org/2012/†¦/a-closer-look-at-developing-counselor-identity. Petrone, M. C. (2004). Multicultural self-assessment. In M. D. Cox & L. Richlin (Eds.), Building faculty learning communities (pp. 122–123). San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons. Vernon, A., & Erford, B.T. (2014). Human Development throughout the Lifespan. In B. T. Erford (Ed.), Orientation to the Counseling Profession: Advocacy, Ethics, and Essential Professional Foundations (2nd. ed.). (pp. 215–239). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.