Working with Diverse Clients - Assignment Example

Working with Diverse Number Chapter 10: Working with Latino/a An Interview with RobertoAlmanzan 1. Religion plays a major role in Latino/a culture. What is your relationship with religion? Because I believe that people in society cannot live in peace without spiritual nourishment, I believe in religion. Religion provides some form of emotional and moral fulfillment to me, especially when I am facing a difficulty. Through religion I have established ways to meditate, worship, practice my patience, develop my capacity of tolerance to hardship, and understand different cultures in the world. 2. What role do you believe religion plays within the helping process? Religion emphasizes the importance of upholding moral values that help to streamline an individual’s life and lead him or her to choose righteousness. Through religion believers practice behaviors that cannot harm them or their neighbors. For instance, religion helps members of societies to choose good over wickedness, fair practices over injustices, truth over deception, and inspire living in harmony. 3. How comfortable do you feel working with clients with strong religious beliefs? Working with clients with strong religious beliefs means their perceptions and actions will be consistent and based on righteousness. I am, therefore, very comfortable working with such people because nothing is likely to go wrong. The problem arises when such clients ‘hijack’ precious business time to ‘enlighten’ anybody around about the essence of religion to human life. 4. Are the characteristics described in this chapter consistent or inconsistent with your experience/perception of the Latino/a culture? Please be specific and reference points from this chapter. The views about the Latino culture as presented in this chapter are consistent with my experience. For instance, I concur with Diller (2010) that the Latino culture is highly group-centered. The culture places a strong emphasis on family as the first group institution that guarantees one’s identity and security against the challenges of life. 5. Where do a majority of your perceptions about Latino/as come from? A majority of my perceptions about Latinos are informed by reading of several history books and literature on the cultural values and development since ancient times. Chapter 11: Working with Native American Clients: An Interview with Jack Lawson 6. Are the characteristics described in this chapter consistent or inconsistent with your experience/perception of Native culture? Please be specific and reference points from this chapter. Like the author, my experiences of Native American culture reveal that the society believes in sharing and working together though self comes first. Native Americans emphasize on the need to build strong families based on acceptable values. Members of the community also recognize extended families and tend to work in harmony. At the workplace, the community tends to hate interference from outside. 7. Where do a majority of your perceptions about Native Americans come from? A majority of my perceptions about the community comes from the archeological evidence and cultural activities practiced by the community. I have also had the opportunity to interact with them in school and in religious settings. 8. How can you expand that picture? I can expand my knowledge of the culture of the community by reading more books related to the community. Additionally, watching of their cultural activities such as songs, movies, art and visiting the community to get a grasp of the first-hand information regarding the cultural values would also help. Chapter 12: Working w/African American Clients: An Interview with Veronique Thompson 9. Are the characteristics described in this chapter consistent or inconsistent with your experience/perception of African American culture? Please be specific and reference points from this chapter. I believed that African American values on family are comparable to those of other communities of the American society. I thought that the community’s ideals only vary according to geographic location, educational backgrounds and existing economic conditions. However, Diller (2010) has pointed out the uniqueness of the African American families to other communities of the United States communities and groups. In general, Diller (2010) avers that African American families emphasize on Christian religion, respect and care of kinship and the geriatrics within the population. At work, members of the community tend to be flexible to changes and are ready to take up new responsibilities. 10. Where do a majority of your perceptions about African Americans come from? There is a substantial amount of literature about the culture of African Americans and how they came to be in the United States. I have read several books, newspaper articles, watched cultural activities performed by or about the community in the recent past. Additionally, I have had the opportunity to interact with several members of the community at school and in other social places. These occasions have provided me an opportunity to draw on the culture of the community and reflect on how they relate with other communities in the United States. 11. What information are you still missing to make a more complete picture? It is not clear what makes up the community’s top priority among the kin, family values and economic empowerment, especially after suffering for many decades under the white majority rule for many centuries. Chapter 13: Working with Asian American Clients: An Interview w/Dan Hocoy 12. Are the characteristics described in this chapter consistent or inconsistent with your experience/perception of Asian American culture? Please be specific and reference points from this chapter. Diller’s view is in line with my experience working with members of the Asian American community. Even though, there are unique cultural values and practices of the community members, most of them tend to organize in groups or work collectively. The community also underscores the need to establish cohesion within family and responsibility of the family members. They also emphasize on self-control and discipline; the need to achieve higher education; observe the laws of the land, and respect the geriatric kin. 13. In what ways can it be difficult to create a complete picture of Asian American culture? What can you do to overcome those difficulties? The culture of Asian American community is mainly ‘closed,’ in the sense that the people do not want to their familial weaknesses or internal challenges to be open to the rest of the society for scrutiny. The ‘closure’ of the values presents several challenges to people who want to gain an insight into the culture. However, with more cultural awareness campaigns, the community could open up and allow for a closer analysis of their cultural values. Chapter 14: Working with Arab and Muslim American Clients: An Interview with Marwan Dwairy 14. Are the characteristics described in this chapter consistent or inconsistent with your experience/perception of Arab/Muslim culture? Please be specific and reference points from this chapter. The author’s views about working with Arab and Muslim American clients is similar to my perceptions of the community as one built on strong family values where the man is the head. The author relays the significance of family to Muslim and Arab populations. The community regards family as the pillar of a moral and balanced world. The difference between the culture and Asian American one is that the former is based on individual-led decisions. Islamic religion is the dominant in the community, and has a direct impact on business values, politics and day-to-day life. 15. In what ways have your perceptions changed since 9/11? Since 9/11, my previously-held perception that America was extremely secure from terrorist attacks is no longer working; secondly, American has been more united than I expected, especially in the war against terrorism. Finally, unity among the various American communities can effectively reduce if not end cultural intolerance that may result in some members harboring thoughts of causing insecurity in the country. 16. In what ways do external factors influence your perception of Arab/Muslim culture? Muslim religious values of ensuring peace, helping the weak in society and participating in fasting has led me to believe that Muslims may advance justice and fairness in society, especially if there is less external interference. 17. Do you think media and other portrayals of the culture are consistent with Marwan Dwairy’s account? Both the media and Mawan Dwairy’s account on the culture of Arabs and Muslims are similar. The community tends to be unwilling to discuss their secrets openly in the public or with a female therapist, especially for men, as it is the case in the Western culture. Chapter 15: Working with White Ethnic Clients: An Interview with the Author 18. Are the characteristics described in this chapter consistent or inconsistent with your experience/perception of Jewish culture? Please be specific and reference points from this chapter. The author’s views of the Jewish culture are consistent with my perception of the community. Jews highly regard family values as a stepping stone to better relationships within the bigger society. Jewish culture prefers socialization and higher educational attainments by its members. The cultural integrity of the American Jews underscores the need to enhance the Jewish identity at the individual and the community levels. 19. What experiences have influenced this perception? Generally, Jewish people believe is building a strong influence from the lowest level up the ladder. They believe that most achievements in the current world stem from higher educational achievement. 20. How might this influence the helping relationship you may have with a Jewish client? Owing to the sociability of the community members, helping the members tends to be easy because they open up and are ready to share with their neighbors (read helper), provided process does not breach their cultural values. They are normally tolerant to others, thus are easier to accommodate. Reference Diller, J.V. (2010). Cultural Diversity: A Primer for the Human Services. New York: Cengage Learning. Read More