Learning Catalog Principles Quadrants of Change Trauma Modules Módulos de Trauma Intimate Partner Violence Modules
Resources Catalog Toolkits Training & Technical Assistance Action Briefs Articles Video: First Impressions Video: Hear Our Voices

Enhancing Cultural Responsiveness

Module Purpose

The purpose of this module is to:

  • Better understand culture and the potential impact of culture on families experiencing adversity and trauma.

  • Recognize one’s own culture and its impact on serving families.

  • Reflect on cultural humility and cultural responsiveness as we work with families.

 

Exploring Culture

Recognizing culture and the influence it has in a family’s experiences is essential. Culture is the a complex system of ways we as a group of people who share experiences give meaning to our lives. It includes our worldview, behavior patterns, art, beliefs, language, institutions, and other products of human work and thought. Its many aspects are dynamic and diverse. We may often bring assumptions and misperceptions about culture into our work. 

Culture is often contradictory, potentially carrying values that can be both oppressive and nurturing. Culture develops and continues to evolve in relation to changing social and political contexts, based on race, ethnicity, national origin, sexuality, gender, religion, age, class, disability status, immigration status, education, geography, special interests, and time (1). 

Why is understanding culture important?

Here are several examples of how culture can impact our work with families experiencing adversity and trauma:

  • Culture can shape a person’s beliefs of the experience.

  • Culture may inform our response and interventions.

  • Culture may impact accessibility and present barriers to service.

  • Culture can influence how children are perceived in the family.

The first step to valuing diversity and culture is valuing and understanding our own culture. Dedicating time to exploring and understanding our own culture, as well as our beliefs and values, is essential to safely and effectively supporting families.

Sources

  1. Saduskly, j. (2010) Safe Passage: Supervised Safe Exchange for Battered Women and Their Children

 

Relational Presence

Relational presence is being attentive to how we are engaging with other people. It is the process of interacting in a way that opens possibilities with those with whom we work. It helps us shift from an "expert" position to being present and open with each other. It is remaining responsive to the moment, recognizing we can not know what will contribute to change. It avoids assuming universality and believing that something that makes sense in one context would be the same in another.

The first step to strengthen our relational presence is to practice deep listening 

  • Relational listening invites clear intent to discover something new about another person.

  • Relational listening is about listening together to deepen both understanding and relationship.

  • Relational listening allows new shared meanings to emerge.

  • When we listen deeply, we are changed by each other. In deep listening we are both the changer and the changed.

  • New insights and understandings grow from deep listening.

Click here to download a handout provides further ideas on how to strengthen relational presence.

Sources

  1. Sheila McNamee, Radical Presence www.youtube.com/watch?v=n04Vbhg7PJY;  Transformative Dialogue: Coordinating Conflicting Moralities (2008). Click here to download Transformative Dialogue

  2. Samuel Mahaffy, Relational Listening - http://samuelmahaffy.com/2016/03/deep-listening-from-outer-space-and-inner-space/

 

Relational Cultural Practice

When we connect through growth-fostering relationships, we develop relational competence. In relationships where there tends to be a power imbalance (such as professional and client), it is important to pay attention to how we are relating and how power plays a role in our communications and explore imbalances in power and privilege. 

When there is disconnection, people may feel a denial of their perspective and in response they may begin to keep their experiences to themselves. This can result in diminished sense of vitality, empowerment, worth, and desire for connection. Disconnection also occurs at the sociocultural level when we categorize, stereotype, and stratify people. When we impose our own cultural world views without seeking to understand another’s perspective, we may be acting from racism, sexism, heterosexism, and classism. 

By understanding another person’s culture, we create connection and growth-fostering relationships. These relationships are created through mutual empathy (the ability to understand another’s thoughts/feelings) and mutual empowerment (ability to take action).

Five positive things of growth-fostering relationships are (1):

  1. Increased vitality

  2. Empowerment: Increased ability to take action

  3. Develop a clearer picture of one’s self, the other, and the relationship

  4. Strengthened sense of worth

Sources

  1. Jordan, J.V., & Hartling, L.M. (2002). New Developments in Relational-Cultural Theory. In M. Ballou & L.S. Brown (Eds.), Rethinking Mental Health and Disorders: Feminist Perspectives (pp. 48-70). New York: Guilford Publications.

 

Cultural Humility

The approach of cultural humility encourages us to identify and acknowledge our biases (1). Cultural humility calls for self-reflection, curiosity, and creating opportunities for people to be heard (2): 

  • An ongoing process and commitment to self-reflection and a self-critique at the individual and institutional level.

  • Desire and curiosity to explore one’s own culture, assumptions, similarities, and differences with individuals and families with whom we work.

  • Obligation to set our power and authority aside to create authentic opportunities for individuals and families to be valued and heard.

Sources

  1. Levi, Amy. “The Ethics of Nursing Student International Clinical Experiences” Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, and Neonatal Nursing. Vol. 38, No. 1, pp. 94-99 (2009). Accessed 10/22/12. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1552-6909.2008.00314.x/full#ss4

  2. Browning, David. “Visiting a Foreign Land: Cultivating Cultural Humility in Pediatric Palliative Care. Accessed 3/25/12. www.baltimoresun.com/news/bal-angels-ippchandout,0,2913672.story

 

Cultural Responsiveness

Approaches to providing culturally responsive advocacy and support to families begin by avoiding assumptions and being curious about others. A culturally responsive approach is one that:

  • Acknowledges that people’s values that support or resist intimate partner violence may also be part of a larger culture’s values and accepted practices.

  • Understands that culture is dynamic and that individuals have their own unique experience and understanding of the role of culture in their lives.

  • Recognizes that our own culture and social standing shapes how we see and understand others.

  • Understands that it is not about being an expert in a specific culture, rather it is being open and responsive to the unique role culture plays for individuals and families as defined by each individual and family.

  • Pays attention to the role of power and privilege in each interaction with individuals and families.