Cultural Humility

Cultural Humility
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Cultural Humility
Thoughts on cultural humility - What is your current understanding of the concept of cultural humility?
As I reflect on cultural humility, I realize that it is ongoing learning but also putting aside my perspective on someone's culture. To showcase cultural humility is to embrace and be open to one’s culture and acknowledge that I will never be culturally competent. I never want to make assumptions about my client's culture. For example, I had a client who had a Latino last name and assumed they were Mexican, and I got them a translator who spoke Spanish. However, the client told me they were Filipino. Rather than asking the client, I assumed that everyone with a Latino last name was Mexican, and in this example, I was not showcasing cultural humility. As a counselor, I want to work with a diverse group of clients with an attitude to learning about the client's culture, recognizing my limitations, showing genuine interest in the client's culture, and openness to growth, which is what cultural humility is in my understanding currently. This concept also applies to people of the same race but with different cultural experiences.
I have learned that cultural humility enables an individual to understand his or her limitations and appreciate others’ cultural experiences and backgrounds. In reality, counseling entails in-depth interactions with clients from different racial, religious, ethnic, or cultural backgrounds. The counselor can only understand the client’s problems by taking an interpersonal stance from the perspective of others rather than being self-focused. In that light, cultural humility comes in to enable the specialist to perceive things from the client’s perspective. Indeed, it is correct to say that it refers to an ongoing self-critique and self-exploration process that is combined with a counselor’s willingness to learn from his or her clients. I think a counselor should create and maintain a proper relationship with others. However, it can be challenging to form and sustain trusting relationships with others without honoring their values, customs, norms, beliefs, and attitudes. No individual can feel valued or respected if others are not willing to comprehend things from their perspectives. On that note, cultural humility enables counselors to be willing to learn from others and compromise their cultural beliefs and values. That way, it becomes possible to provide effective solutions to problems faced by others. Cultural humility leads one to the road of acknowledging clients’ differences and accepting others for who they are without trying to make them see things from one’s perspective. As such, cultural humility is a lifelong commitment to self-critique and self-evaluation that allows individuals to learn about others’ cultures and address issues from their perspectives.
Personal Assessment - What strengths do you have in practicing cultural humility? In what ways could you build on these strengths? What are areas of growth you want to work on?
In practicing cultural humility, I have numerous strengths. They incl...