Cultural Competency, Empowerment, and Motivation

Eating nutritious food helps in maintaining a healthy life, as it assists people to maintain the right weight and reduce the risk of some diseases such as obesity and heart diseases. However, as in the case of Josephine, culture can prevent individuals from eating healthy food. Josephine’s culture prevents her from preparing her own food because it is the responsibility of her mother to make meals for the family. Her culture only allows mothers to prepare meals in the family. At the same time, Josephine’s traditional meal is characterized by fatty and fried food, which is unhealthy and can lead to obesity. In addition, the social customs do not allow Josephine to correct or tell her mother what or how to cook. Therefore, Josephine culture affects her food choices and how she eats. Even though she does not like eating fatty food, she is forced to eat unhealthy meals against her wishes. She sometimes skips some meals in order to maintain her weight. Her daily activities such as teaching salsa also restrict her to maintain the right weight. Hence, the culture affects the types of food that Josephine eats. In order to build a trusting relationship with Josephine, I would have to change my counseling strategies. First, I will have to spend a lot of time listening to her story to fully understand her situation, feelings, and background ( Forchuk, 2000 ). Understanding her will enable me to address cultural issues affecting her in a sensitive way without hurting her feelings. Secondly, I will engage in self-disclosure to create a rapport and make her comfortable. To have a successful nutritional counseling, I will use various multicultural communication skills. First, to be clearer to the client, I will make use of both verbal and non-verbal communication techniques to reduce misunderstandings. I will also avoid the use of technical words that may confuse the client or create misunderstanding. In addition, I will remain calm and composed even when the client makes mistake in her communication and even give the client a benefit of doubt for saying weird words ( Forchuk, 2000 ). 

Reference 

Forchuk, C., et al. (2000). The developing nurse-client relationship: Nurse’s perspectives. Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association , 6(1), 3-10.