Humanities Homework Help

Three concepts about diversity and social justice that this writer thinks are most important to the whole group are multicultural integration, empowerment, and social justice advocacy. Multicultural integration involves the group leader recognizing the cultural elements of each group member while helping each member see the uniqueness that every other member contributes to the group (Berg, Fall, and Landreth, 2013). This writer believes that multicultural integration is important in group therapy because there in groups, there will be people from different backgrounds with different cultures so inclusivity is major.

Empowerment involves the group leaders building on the energy of the previous stages and help create an atmosphere that promotes self-advocacy (Berg et al., 2013). When group members find their voice, they begin to gain confidence and the skills needed to become self-sufficient members of society (Berg et al., 2013). This writer believes that empowerment is important for group members so that they can evolve and become self-advocates (Berg et al., 2013). Lastly, social justice advocacy involves expanding into the larger community to advocacy for larger change (Berg et al., 2013). This intertwines with empowerment because the group members can gain self-advocacy and learn that the change can grow and impact others in the community or society as a whole (Berg et al., 2013). This writer believes that social-justice advocacy is important because the therapist can educate others on social justice which leads to people going out into the community.

This writer does believe that social justice advocacy is important but will talk about it when appropriate. According to the American Counseling Association (2014) counselors should avoid imposing their own values, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. This writer would not impose her values so that this writer does not influence the group. Counselors should provide treatment to culturally diverse populations. Counselors should recognize that culture affects the manner in which clients’ problems are defined and experienced but should not discriminate based on culture or any other factors (ACA, 2014).

References

American Counseling Association (2014). ACA Code of Ethics. Alexandria, VA: Author.

Berg, R. C., Fall, K. A., & Landreth, G. L. (2013). Group Counseling : Concepts and Procedures: Vol. 5th ed. Routledge.

Kiana M

This writer feels that the three concepts most important for group therapy are Multicultural Integration, Social-Justice Advocacy and Gain a Comprehensive Understanding of Your Own Culture and How It Impacts Your View of Others and, In Turn, How It Impacts Your View of Your Group Members.

Multicultural Integration is when the health professional understands the cultural differences that each member of the group brings with them and how those differences can be experienced for group members (Berg, Landreth & Fall, 2013). Health professionals assist group members with understanding the unique individuality that each member can bring to the group and how they can learn from each other. Health professionals should try to facilitate conversations that naturally incorporate each group member’s cultural identity and differences (Berg, Landreth & Fall, 2013). For the benefit of the group, some conversations might need to focus solely on cultural differences within the group, where health professionals should ask group members if they can recognize the differences within the group and question the power that the group has the potential of holding within itself (AGPA, 2013: Berg, Landreth & Fall, 2013). While health professionals are respecting and exploring each group member’s identity and culture and are assisting them with respecting and exploring each other, the health professional should also be aware of their own culture and how they can be a part of the matrix (Berg, Landreth & Fall, 2013). When health professionals are able to be self-aware, they can open up the conversation to more collaborativeness between everyone, which can promote a sense of power within the group and for each member of the group (Berg, Landreth & Fall, 2013). Sometimes when health professionals are aware of cultural differences, but they don’t discuss them in groups, this can make the other members feel uncomfortable discussing the topic (Berg, Landreth & Fall, 2013). This writer feels that an important aspect of Multicultural Integration is the health professional having the difficult, but open discussion about each group member’s individual culture and how their culture can impact them in their daily life (Berg, Landreth & Fall, 2013). The discussion can help the group members feel comfortable with discussions about issues that they might have experienced in life and how they have affected them (Berg, Landreth & Fall, 2013). The group members can learn from each other, how other cultures can impact individual people and perhaps how people from the same culture can be impacted differently (Berg, Landreth & Fall, 2013). When a health professional has a difficult discussion, such as about cultural differences and how these cultural differences can impact individuals, the health professional should always make sure that each member feels valued, comfortable and safe to discuss their feelings openly (Berg, Landreth & Fall, 2013). Health professionals should understand that even though cultural differences and their effects can be a difficult discussion, ignoring cultural differences could potentially make a group member feel as if a part of their identity is being ignored and taken away from them (AGPA, 2013).

Social-Justice Advocacy is when health professionals assist group members with expanding their knowledge and awareness about culture, and social justice knowledge that they have gained within the group and learning how to advocate in the larger community for a positive change (Berg, Landreth & Fall, 2013). Group members typically gain a sense of Social-Justice Advocacy when they have experienced personal change within themselves and utilize the knowledge that they have gained by practicing their acknowledged personal change within the group (Berg, Landreth & Fall, 2013). Once group members have achieved personal change and insightful knowledge about Social-Justice, some members might feel a growing need to share their knowledge and experience with a larger community to help promote a positive change for the community and the individuals who reside in the community (Berg, Landreth & Fall, 2013). Some group members might feel that once they have grown within the group, the next step for them in their personal growth is to use the knowledge that they have gained to help others and work for a cause greater than their own (Berg, Landreth & Fall, 2013). An important issue for health professionals to be cautious of is that not every group member will want to advocate for Social-Justice and it’s important for health professionals to be aware of this, so that they don’t unintentionally push the need for avocation onto group members and make them feel uncomfortable (Berg, Landreth & Fall, 2013). Health professionals should have a discussion about advocating for Social-Justice, but only if the group is appropriate for the discussion and as long as all of the members feel comfortable with the convocation of advocating for Social-Justice outside of the group setting (Berg, Landreth & Fall, 2013). Otherwise, if only some members are open and comfortable with the idea, then health professionals may still have a conversation with them before or after the group. This way, health professionals are respecting the feelings of the other group members who may be uncomfortable with the idea (Berg, Landreth & Fall, 2013). Health professionals should make sure that they are self-aware and are not pushing their own personal values onto group members to advocate for something that they might not have wanted to in the beginning, but felt that they had to because their health professional felt so strongly about the idea and kept pushing for it during group sessions (Berg, Landreth & Fall, 2013).

Gain a Comprehensive Understanding of Your Own Culture and How It Impacts Your View of Others and, In Turn, How It Impacts Your View of Your Group Members is when health professionals have a deeper understanding of themselves and are self-aware of their beliefs and values (Berg, Landreth & Fall, 2013). Health professionals with a sense of self-awareness are able to understand how their personal beliefs and values can intersect on a macro level, such as the larger community around them and on a micro level, such as the groups that they facilitate (Berg, Landreth & Fall, 2013). Health professionals with a sense of self-awareness are able to understand how diversity and social injustice can greatly impact their group and the way that their group functions (Berg, Landreth & Fall, 2013). Health professionals should make sure that they are comfortable with discussing the issues of diversity and social injustice, since any uneasiness can reflect onto their group members, potentially making them feel uncomfortable with discussing the topic (Berg, Landreth & Fall, 2013). Health professionals should be comfortable with the knowledge that having discussions about diversity and social injustice opens up a difference of opinions and perceptions, which may result in conflict (Berg, Landreth & Fall, 2013).

This writer feels that they still need to explore their own personal values and beliefs in order to gain a deeper understanding of self-awareness and prevent projecting themselves onto their group members. One of the things that this writer has worked hard on is remembering that everyone is different, and if this writer doesn’t agree with something, they should still also respect the other person’s beliefs, values, opinions and thoughts on a topic. One thing that this writer learned from this week’s reading is that they are not fully comfortable with talking about cultural differences. This writer is only uncomfortable with talking about cultural differences because they don’t know much about different cultures themselves and this writer is self-aware enough to understand that they will try to avoid conversations that they know conflict will emerge from. This writer can see how their discomfort with discussing cultural differences could potentially make group members feel uncomfortable and not want to open up or talk about and explore the topic at all. This is definitely an area that this writer knows they need to educate themselves on more.

This writer feels that health professionals should provide treatment to a culturally diverse population. Health professionals who purposely do not provide treatment to a diverse population would be unethical and going against the code of ethics that states health professionals should gain knowledge, self-awareness, sensitivity and any skills that they need to be culturally competent when they are working with a diverse population (ACA, C.2. 2014). This means that when health professionals ignore a diverse population because they are unwilling to work with them, or they do not feel skilled enough to effectively assist them, then the health professionals are being unethical because they are not taking the time and steps to improve their education and knowledge in the area to better serve the group members. If a health professional has a group of diverse members, then the health professional can’t just refer the group members out to a different health professional because the diverse group members went against the health professional’s personal beliefs, values and attitudes (ACA, A.11.b, 2014). If a health professional did refer a group of diverse members out for this reason, it would be unethical and go against the code of ethics, which states that health professionals need to respect the diversity of any client and the health professionals should seek out training if they are at risk of imposing their own personal beliefs and values onto group members (ACA, A.11.b, 2014).

References:

American Counseling Association. (2014). 2014 ACA code of ethics.https://www.counseling.org/resources/aca-code-of-ethics.pdf

American Group Psychotherapy Association – AGPA. (2013, April 12). Cultural Competence in Group Therapy – AGPA Racial & Ethnic Diversity SIG. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuCaTJt7N78

Berg, R., Landreth, G. L., & Fall, K. A. (2013). Group counseling: Concepts and procedures. New York: Routledge

DQ#2 Theory

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