Cultural competence is not something that I have.

I know most of information about

culture, and am still learning about it. For example, I know that culture is when there is a group
of people that have the same beliefs, values, morals, customs, norms, share same religion, social
habits, and more. So, in human services, suppose I will work with someone from a culture of
judaism. I am not jewish, I am christian. I can imagine that there will be things that I need to be
aware of when I work with this client.
Judaism is people who share same belief in religion, and they are group of jews. Jews are
people who believe that Jesus is not God. The jews were also known as hebrews. So, now with
their belief in that and my belief in God is different. I believe that jesus is God, and this client
would not believe in that. Jews still can be jews if they dont believe in God at all, but they still
believe in the concept of the interpretation of their belief. The client does not celebrate christmas,
but they celebrate hanukkah. I do understand that if I have three clients that are jews, and they all
could vary in what they each believe. Because of what I learned, Jews have few different
branches of what they believe in exactly, such as, orthodox, reform, conservative,
reconstruction, and humanistic. So each individual may vary in their own culture identity, and
norms of behavior. I will need to research all of them and understand the differences and
understand how the culture is part of my client.
This book of Kaiser, mentioned about biculturalism. It will allow me to respect the
clients allegiance and identification with their culture, recognizing the value of the primary
culture to their identity and to have the ability to cope their culture with the social environment.
(Kaiser, 2016). So with all of that, I will be able to have a better relationship with my client,
which is important in human services. Human service professionals must often help clients cope

with culturally challenging situations in their own lives, (Kaiser, 2016, P. 212). That quote
makes me think of some situations that could apply with my experience of working with a client.
Imagine that I am a counselor, and I am going to have this client who is from a jew culture. This
client comes into my office being upset, and tells me all about her new partner who is not jewish.
She is struggling to convince her boyfriend to convert to become a jew, because of their belief in
marriage. When two people marry each other, both of them must be jewish. A jew woman can
not marry someone else who is not a jew, because it is an insult to their values. So, for that
situation, I would need to know how to be able to help this client. I have to find situations that
can solve this problem, and this is a challenge part. Their culture can cause more difficulty and
hard time to identify what ways can resolve the situation. This is a special matter, because it is
related with religion. I believe that religion can be a heavy issue to talk about sometimes. So, If I
knew about biculturalism, then that will benefit me and my client. Finally, as I read the chapter
seven, I can see how some of the information like biculturalism and how to apply it with a client
that I might work with in the future. Cultures can be difficult when you have a culture that could
be a total different than your clients. It is important to be aware of the clients culture for a better
understanding and relationship.

Kiser, P., & Kiser, P. (2016). Developing Cultural Competence. In The human services
internship: Getting the most from your experience (4th ed.). Belmont, CA: Thomson
Brooks/Cole.