Heritage Stephanie Cotton Analysis

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Understanding a one’s heritage and cultural background gives a person an appreciation of where they came from and how they fit into their current world. When one explores their heritage and cultural background it not only gives them a blueprint to the past but also enables one to explore patterns and beliefs they may want to change. In the following paper we will discuss Stephanie Cotton’s heritage and evaluate how her heritage will affect her in the profession of marriage and family counseling . We will discuss strategies to assist Stephanie in becoming a culturally competent counselor.
Heritage
Heritage is a legacy that each families passes down to future generations. This is something that happens organically even if individuals don’t
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While the family did not participate in German traditions, there was always a sense of pride in their German roots. Stephanie’s grandma often spoke of her father, Stephanie’s great grandfather, with great pride. While he only lived to be the age of 33, he has a very successful career as a lawyer and Florida senator. Both of Stephanie’s grandparents where in the military and passed down a great sense of American and military pride. This sense of pride resulted in 3 out of 7 kids going into he Navy, and countless grandchildren and great grandchildren going on to join the military as well. There was an expectation in the family, that if you didn’t go into the military you would find a job that gave back to the community. Several members of Stephanie’s family went on to become teachers and nurses due to this expectation (Shell Simmons, Personal Communication, August 3, 2015). Family Traditions
In terms of family traditions in Stephanie’s family, Stephanie’s grandmother was the matriarch of the family and required that major holidays such as Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Easter be spent together. While Stephanie’s mother did not celebrate such holidays, she always honored the request of her mother and attended the family functions. This family tradition was carried on util 2003 when Stephanie’s grandmother died. Spiritual
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Stephanie remembers often feeling ashamed growing up whenever she would have to sit out of a school activity or wasn’t allowed to celebrate holidays in school. People would often made fun of Stephanie because of her religious views and would tell her that she was weird. It’s understandable why Stephanie would feel ashamed since our society is has been formed by dominate groups such as White Christians, who have imposed their beliefs and standards on others (Sue & Sue, 2013, p.122). Groups such as these live under an invisible veil and are products of their cultural conditioning (2013). Because people live under this invisible veil they assume that everyone shares their same reality and beliefs. For example, during the holidays people would often wish Stephanie a Merry Christmas, assuming she followed the same religious traditions. This is a form of microagression (Sue & Sue, 2013, p.160) and it would send a message to Stephanie that her religion was not important or that there was something wrong with her

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