According to Bloom’s taxonomy, the evaluation category implies making a judgment about concepts or ideas. In this regard, I will be evaluating changes that happened in my personality, knowledge, and attitudes. Most importantly, I became more aware of psychosocial differences in people of various cultural backgrounds during this course. My former beliefs were based on the assumption that all people share universal traits and should be counseled similarly.
However, experience in a class taught me that people from different cultures might have varying attitudes on such events as major life changes and challenges. Therefore, a wise counselor should reveal these differences and utilize them to improve connection with the client rather than ignore them. I realized that a good counselor should establish trust with the client by showing awareness of cultural differences and openness to new knowledge.
In addition, I learned that curiosity is a good, even desirable, trait for a professional counselor. A curious person strives to learn, improve, and obtain additional professional knowledge. For instance, the lack of curiosity led me to ignorance and an insufficient understanding of the importance of the cultural aspect importance in counseling. On a personal level, tactful curiosity may serve as a means of building better contact with future clients. Before the course, I considered curiosity an undesirable trait that could anger the client and lower the quality of counseling. Now I realize that the lack of curiosity would turn a counselor into a dull, uncaring person who would not help their clients.
Lastly, I learned that determination, patience, and willingness to overcome obstacles are paramount for a counselor. A counselor cannot surrender and abandon the client if something goes wrong, and establishing mutual trust does not happen quickly. In addition, a counselor should not think that they have mastered their profession — it is necessary to learn constantly, and laziness is unacceptable. Pride and dogmatism would lead a counselor to professional downfall, so one should try their best to avoid them at all costs. Overall, I feel that the course gave me valuable insights, which will help me both on personal and professional levels.