The personal skills and experiences I bring that will be helpful for me in becoming a competent counselor are my prior work experiences as a counselor in Nepal with trauma survivors, children, adolescents, and adults. My growth mindset, self-retrospective nature, ability to empathize with others’ suffering, resilience, and non-judgmental attitude will bring an opportunity to connect with clients, create a safe space for clients in the session, understand their perspectives, and encourage me to learn as see the client as a unique entity. My multicultural background also brings my holistic perspective, which will help me connect with clients from non-dominant cultures and understand their struggles. Moreover, my organizational skills, communication skills, along with basic and advanced counseling skills will enable me to bring the effective intervention and healing of the client

Contrary to that, my cultural background can make it difficult for me to relate to the client from the dominant culture. The language barrier I face can also hinder the counseling process as I struggle to come up with the right sentences and responses in the English language, even while doing roleplays. My cultural background and my intersectional identity as a South Asian woman have the potential to bring biases about American culture. I might also generalize the experience of women, men, and others who were born in the United States to immigrants’ parents and discard the nuances of their day-to-day experiences, identity, struggles, and acculturation process. Moreover, my long exposure in counseling field in Nepal and experience of work might sometime make it difficult for me to take feedback and unlearn my way of doing things in the context of united states.

There are so many things to unlearn and relearn throughout the process of becoming an effective counselor. Interestingly, I have noticed that the shortcomings I am facing right now can get better gradually with knowledge, practice, and supervision. To be an effective counselor, I will intentionally seek out more training and workshops, read books, listen to podcasts, and seek out support to enhance my skills as a counselor, work on my biases and past experiences, learn about the American cultures, and learn the vocabulary of counseling in English. Moreover, I will do my best in my practicum and internships to appreciate unlearning and learning things through practice, reflection, and supervision. I will also attend conferences to keep myself updated in the field and to become a member of counseling organizations like the Virginia Counselors Association and the American Counseling Association. Lastly, I will continue educating myself and get involved in self-care practices to recharge myself, to be able to give back to my clients.