As an aspiring counselor, it is important to examine our experiences and backgrounds. The diversity in my family has an impact on how my family functions as a whole and had a significant impact on my upbringing, values, beliefs, and understanding of my racial identity.

In order to best serve clients in the field of Mental Health Counseling, it is imperative to explore personal background and culture. This exploration helps the aspiring counselor understand their biases, and how their worldview shapes their practice.

Mindfulness has been a part of my life for well over a decade. I committed to practicing meditation and living a life of mindful thought at a time in my life when it became imperative that I explore more positive and healthier mindsets and thought patterns. There was a time when I found, stemming from my life circumstances, that I was angry, unhappy, negative, and upset with myself for feeling all of the above! I knew I had to find a better way to live so I could be a better parent and a better human being. After attending many mindfulness training sessions, conferences, and online classes and noticing a significant change in my life and my understanding and ability to shift my thinking, I began to share what I have learned and benefited from through training school district staff, faculty, community members, and students.

I became invested in finding ways reduce this stigma to ultimately help those affected by mental illnesses. My research suggested that implementing programs in schools that teach children about mental illnesses is the best way to address and diminish this stigma. These programs sounded great to me because they helped reduce this problematic stigma and they centered around the population I wanted to work with; children. As a result, I became a strong advocate for such programs. When I decided that I wanted to pursue a master’s degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling, I knew my passion for these programs would not fade. 

In the first semester of graduate school, I was assigned to film a mock counseling video with a peer. I was an anxious, nervous wreck. I called on one of my best friends to help me and act as my mock client. My first video was okay, but after watching it, I knew I could do better. In fact, I was determined to do better. I wanted to show that this was the profession for me, that I could counsel and do a mock video without the anxiety. Now, almost halfway through my second semester, I feel so much more prepared when it’s time to do a mock counseling video.

The Graduate Program at Cazenovia College hosted a virtual continuing education conference and allow our students and their practicum/internship site supervisors the opportunity to stay up to date on the latest techniques. Continuing education is a very important part of being a Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC) in the field of counseling and it’s imperative that we show the students in the program at Cazenovia College the importance of staying up to date.

Aspiring counselors, like those in the Clinical Mental Health Counseling program, cannot meet objectives like demonstrating an understanding of the nature of biases without analyzing their own backgrounds, then drawing connections to social and cultural systems. By understanding the dynamics of our upbringing, we can question and challenge our worldviews. Are we stuck in cultural tunnel vision? Are we capable of working with those who are not like us?

Communication patterns within social systems emerge over time spent in that environment. This is important to assess when training to work in the counseling field. Creating and maintaining a family narrative is common, particularly related to guiding sentiments or proverbs. Using proverbs is another way to reinforce expected or desired behaviors within the family. 

Psychological sense of community (PSOC) can be described as belonging to a larger structure with benefits of interdependence (Sarason, 1974). Although psychological sense of community is more complex than simply belonging to a community. It also involves a sense of loyalty, connection, and trust while holding a duality of influence; the individual influences the community while also being molded by the community.

Students in a clinical graduate program like Mental Health Counseling spend a significant amount of time assessing personal biases. Introductory course assignments focus on family of origin and how one’s upbringing impacts their overall worldview. Taking a systems perspective, students begin to dissect the roles of family, community, cultural nuance, and sociopolitical issues and how these have shaped their perspectives.