Cultural Immersion Reflection

For this assignment, I was required to complete The Ethnographic Immersion Cultural Journal that involved my engagement into an unfamiliar cultural setting. First, I chose a person of a different ethnicity than mine, who became the focus of my project. Next, I designed the activities that allowed me to spend 10 hours learning about and interacting with the selected individual. This was followed by providing details about her country of origin, cultural background, worldview, religious beliefs, and her values. The description also included the critical historical and political events that were relevant to understanding her experiences. The last step involved presenting my reflections on the cultural immersion experience, what I have learned …show more content…
By interacting with a person of a different cultural background, I was able to understand how the process of the acculturation may be experienced differently, depending on one’s ethnicity, nationality, socioeconomic status, or religion. Listening to the story about Marisela’s first husband made me realize that for many people acculturation is a life changing and stressful experience that may have negative outcomes on their mental health (E.1). Learning about the discrimination Marisela has experienced while living in the USA helped me recognize how racism and other forms of oppressions may devalue one’s cultural identity, lower self-esteem, and increase the risk of mental health problems such as depression, or substance use (E.2). The participation in the Immersion Project also reminded me that it is imperative to develop and implement culturally appropriate counseling techniques (E.4). For example, in my chosen population, gender roles are traditionally strongly defined, where men should be strong and dominant, and women should be weak and submissive. A counselor who is not aware that these cultural differences, may attribute mental health and other problems to gender inequalities, and assume that more egalitarian men-women relationships will be more appropriate for clients. This assignment made me aware that every human tends to be ethnocentric. However, the competent counselor needs to recognize cultural differences, and be able to accept and appreciate cultural diversity and other people’s worldviews. Consequently, treatment approach should be determined by the constellation of cultural considerations, including race, ethnicity, gender, and religion, SES