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CULTURAL DIVERSITY 4
Running head: CULTURAL DIVERSITY 1
Cultural Diversity
PCN-162
Grand Canyon University
Cultural Diversity
Cultural diversity is a pool of people from different cultural backgrounds who possess different behaviors and even beliefs. Cultural diversity is a common insolvent in our daily life as we get to interact with groups of people. It can be at school, the workplace, or the general social setting. Most cultural diversity differences are usually more conspicuous when people are working in teams. While many advantages come with having a culturally diverse team, there are also conflicts that arise from expecting a group of people to work towards a common goal despite their differences. Cultural diversity is a factor in group therapy because it presents variables on how the patients contribute to the team, their healing, and recovery process.
Discuss cultural diversity in group therapy.
In group therapy, cultural diversity presents many variable factors that have to be navigated to come to a positive outcome (Popescu, 2014). A therapy group is a tea of people trying to overcome a common problem. But on a closer analysis of the group, there are individual behaviors, beliefs, and perspectives when approaching issues that might become an obstacle in a normal therapy setting. This is a significant issue because overlooking the cultural influence on certain practices will slow down the healing process and even leave gaps in the recovery process. For instance, it is possible for a patient to not open up over something he or she fears that would sound ridiculous to others. Worse, the members might decide to goa long with the majority, which means that they will leave the therapy without having dealt with their demons.
A team is a group of individuals with diverse skills and perception of how some things are done. For them to attain a specific goal, they must come up with a common ground on how to deal with issues. In many cases, the majority in the group tend to set the trend from which the others have to follow. Such a notion should not be encouraged in a therapy setting since this is a place that requires an individual to deal with the root of their problems. A team is usually put together with the hope that since they have a common goal, they are going to combine their familiarity or differences in dealing with the issue (Pieterse, Knippenberg, &Dierendonck, 2012). Cultural diversity is a less threatening factor in therapy unless the individual feels uncomfortable with the given practices.
Explain the impact of cultural diversity on the group process
A therapy group is supposed to operate on cultural competency where the leader has an intensive understanding of the issues facing different cultures involved in the team. Lack of such an understanding would send some patients home more frustrated than healed. There are ethnic issues like racism, which would influence withdrawal during team sessions. It is required that the counselor plays the role of the unifying factors. Surprisingly, some of the group members might be one of the people who promote social evils like racism.
Through relevant questions, a therapist can examine an individual to come up with an insight into the cultural fears and stereotypes that might cause conflict in the group. After understanding this from each before forming the group, the leader can then guide the team in a manner that eliminates conflicts, especially ones that can be influenced by verbal exchanges. It is possible to maintain a professional therapy group that is still social and friendly enough for everyone to feel comfortable irrespective of their background.
Cultural barriers that may be encountered when working with diverse populations
The first cultural barrier is language since communication is very crucial during therapy and teamwork; this would be a significant obstacle in the process. The language barrier can be in the form of verbal and nonverbal communication styles. This can be eliminated by adopting an appropriate way of cross-cultural communication and also gather some listening techniques that would facilitate a smooth flow of information among the parties available. The best thing is that globalization has made it simple for people to borrow some vital cultural aspects, including creating several universal communication methods. The other obstacle is the lack of cultural self-awareness where the counselor himself/herself becomes shocked with some cultural aspects (Sue, & Sue, 2008). This will cause a direct withdrawal by the client who might be encountering challenges because of their uniqueness. An individual’s personality can also become an obstacle where they might not be able to explain themselves because they are fearful or naturally distrusting.
Culturally diverse groups to work within my career and why the groups are interesting
I have identified some groups that I would enjoy working within the future, many of which involve working with people from every origin in the world. From the research, it is clear that cultural diversity is not a choice; almost every single working place has people from different ethnic and racial backgrounds. The most enjoyable group who work with will be one that takes cultural diversity as excitement instead of a burden. It is beautiful to make friend new unique friends and also learn new things from their cultures since staying with the same familiar practices can be boring. In my future career, I would be looking forward to working with a team of different people because I am psychological prepared and also because I find it exciting.
In conclusion, cultural diversity in therapy teams might not be a big deal because the individuals have a common goal to work towards, but there can be obstacles that specifically arise from people having different perspectives. There are common obstacles that face counselors like the language barrier, personality behaviors, and lack of cultural competency. Cultural diversity is a factor in group therapy because it presents variables on how the patients contribute to the team, their healing, and recovery process.
References
Pieterse, N.A Knippenberg, D.V. Dierendonck, V.D. (2012). Cultural Diversity and Team
Performance: The Role of Team Member Goal Orientation. Academy of Management.
56(3). https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2010.0992
Popescu, A. Borca, C. Fistis, G. Draghici, A. (2014). Cultural Diversity and Differences in
Cross-cultural Project Teams. Elsevier. 16(1) 525-536
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.protcy.2014.10.120Get.
Sue,D.W. Sue, D. (2008). Counseling the Culturally Diverse: Theory and Practice (5th Ed.).
New York: NY: Wiley and Sons.
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