Culturally Relevant Strategies
Jennifer Sillaway COUN5336 Counseling and Advocacy with Diverse Populations
February 24, 2013
Dr. Kaisha Thomas

Aspirations
Mental health counseling was not the career path in which I envisioned myself embarking on. Becoming a mental health counselor has many challenges and benefits. Along my career path I have had the pleasure of getting to know a variety of positions within mental health. Finding the definition of a mental health counselor can be defined as having compassion, being inquisitive, and having the need to help the mentally ill. Mental health counselors must have in place the right tools in order to properly aid those who are seeking mental health counseling. Mental health counselors …show more content…

“Religion is often organized and practiced within a community, but it can also be practiced alone and in private. However, central to its definition is that religion is rooted in an established tradition that arises out of a group of people with common beliefs and practices concerning the sacred.” (Koenig, 2009).
The church was very involved in local events that helped the immediate black community reach out to those less fortunate than others.
Stereotypical views of this group can be influenced from by many factors included my own presence within the group. Being from another cultural background did make it difficult to relate to the members of this particular group even though all members where welcoming. Most members felt that society had a very negative point of view on the church and its members based solely on their cultural background. Most of these negative perspectives come from a long-standing history with a neighborhood that is falling behind financially and at risk for becoming another “ghetto”.
Discrimination and oppression have been an obvious issue for the church since its inception in Carbondale in the 1700’s. Racial profiling of church members based simply on their attendance, due to poor neighborhood conditions, is common according to certain members of the church. “Research has indicated that racial discrimination places African Americans at risk for psychological distress, in which they experience low levels of well-being. Yet many African