Culturally Relevant Strategies



Culturally Relevant Strategies

Introduction

This paper intends to discuss various aspects of mental health counseling. For this particular paper, I am considering a diverse group of African Americans which I am not a member of and I am most likely to counsel. I will be attending the 'Sankofa Festival' which focuses on this group. Moreover, the paper will also describe my career aspirations in relation with the mental health counseling. Further, the cultural immersion will be explored in respect with the festival attended. The paper will also focus on the client characteristics and concerns and most importantly several culturally relevant strategies will be explored. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the relevance of culturally relevant strategies from the perspective of mental health counseling and to make the reader aware about how different strategies need to be focused while counseling people from different cultures.

Discussion

Career Aspirations

My career aspiration for a counseling position after my graduation relates to offer my services for the counseling in an inpatient substance abuse treatment center. I want to offer my services for an inpatient substance abuse treatment center because I believe that people who are dependent upon the chemical substances need to be treated with a lot more care and effort in comparison with providing career or marriage counseling (Robert, 2011 Pp. 100-150). Dealing with patients of substance abuse will provide me challenging opportunities and I will experience and learn a lot more than counseling students for their careers or being a marriage counselor. I certainly want to continue with the substance abuse treatment center because I feel that this is the field where I can offer my services in a more appropriate manner by making sure that I must contribute significantly to the field.

Cultural Immersion

The diverse group which I will likely be counseling and I am not a member of is the group of African Americans. I feel that I need to learn more about them in order to be able to provide culturally relevant counseling. The culture of African Americans is entirely different from that of normal Americans. I attended the event of 'Sankofa Festival.' This event is basically a reaffirmation of musical and cultural traditions with the motive to provide cohesion to the African Americans. The festival usually involves various artists for the purpose of performing the musical heritage. The festival held on 6th and 7th of July, 2012. The artists like Drifters and Finesse Band performed in the event.

Moreover, the event provided a platform to local scholars and artists to promote the talents of African Americans and also to work for providing scholarships for the talented African Americas. Literature was disseminated in the event relating to the history and cultural heritage of Africans. While I was preparing to attend the event, I was basically quite excited and anxious about exploring the cultural heritage of Africans. I prepared for participating in the literary discussions from the little knowledge I possess about the culture of African ...