I really enjoyed the partner activity we did last class, Exploring, Finding, and Understanding Career Information. I had never used those websites before. I liked being able to come up with three different careers that fit my case's story. I liked getting practice using the different websites to find information about each career. I thought the O*NET Online had the most information and was the easiest to use. I will be able to recommend this website to my future clients who are looking for a career.
The article for this week talked about career counseling for ethnic and racial minority clients (Byars-Winston & Fouad, 2006). To be a competent counselor, counselors need to look at their own cultural thoughts, values, and views, or use metacognition. I think this is a necessary step to becoming a competent counselor. In my counseling theories class in undergrad, I was required to write a ten page paper on my cultural views. It opened my eyes to how I really see and think of people from other cultures. I also had to write about where my opinions originated from. This helped me to see that these opinions are just opinions that I heard from someone else and not any actual negative behaviors that I saw someone from another culture do. I was upset with myself at first. However, I now know that I can use that knowledge to help myself not judge my clients. I can learn more about different cultures. I have to admit if I have a judgment about another person before I can go about changing it. I also realize that we are all human beings, including counselors. We need to admit that we make mistakes too.
The textbook readings were about ethical and legal guidelines for career development (Brown, 2012). I took Ethics and Professional Practice over the summer. We learned about the APA code of ethics. The textbook discusses the ACA code of ethics. They seem very similar. Principle one is above all, do no harm. I think this is a difficult one for people to understand. If you put your beliefs onto your client and you do not empathize with them to try to see their problem from their frame of reference then you are harming that client. Most people only think of physical harm and emotional harm, such as yelling at the client.
The textbook also talked about a multicultural approach for career counseling (Brown, 2012). I get very nervous when I see information on nonverbal communication preferences and verbal styles with different cultures. I am concerned that I will not remember and I will accidentally offend my client, especially with interruptions being unacceptable to clients who are Native American, Hispanic, and Asian American. I think I might need to interrupt them during a session. I also think that we may be stereotyping clients from these cultures. Maybe some people in those cultures are not offended by being interrupted.
References
Brown, D. (2012). Career information, career counseling, and career development (10th ed.). New York: Pearson Education Inc.
Byars-Winston, A. M., & Fouad, N. A. (2006). Metacognition and multicultural competence: Expanding the culturally appropriate career counseling model. The Career Development Quarterly, 54(3), 187-201.
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