Timeline of My Life and My Identity - Assignments Example for Students

Part 1 - Timeline of My Life

As much as I could remember the details of my life, I was a sad little girl in the early tears of my life. I was born and raised in a house where as African America refer to it as bootlegging taking place. I am an African American female who decided to sit back and watch the pieces of my life get pinched away. As I was growing up, I was raised by my grandmother and grandfather who love me a lot, but they still could not feel the void that was left in my heart by my biological parents. When I was young, my biological mother used me as a punching bag my entire life even when I was an adult. She used to take money away from me as well as steal other things so that she could support her drug and alcohol habits. This habit was so bad that she had me stealing from another woman who loved me and provided everything that I needed. I did not have to steal form thus woman, all I had to do was ask her whatever I needed. My mother has called me every name outside my character which I cannot event surround my mind with it today. As I can remember, I was raped at the age of 8 and severely beaten for the first time. Apart from this, I have been molested several times.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

During those early years, it was tough to talk about issues like being raped as well as being molested. Instead, we had to behave as if nothing had happened. However, the fact that something occurred was affecting me. This matter made me start crying a lot and stay away from people to the extent that I began acting out. Due to this problem, I was putting a plan in action to escape. This issue made me start smoking. When I was eleven years old, I met my ex-husband who was 16 years old at the time and had a job. I targeted him so that he could become my knight in shining armor and he refused at first, but I became persistent as I wanted to remove myself from the situation that was facing me. I used to pray every day which is something that my grandmother had instilled in me. My grandmother taught me how to pray and go to church every day as I grow up. Currently, I am not going to church anymore as I believed in the power of prayer.

Many times that is used to run away from my problems, I would go to the neighborhood prayer worrier who would anoint my head with oil then pray for m. I did not trust anyone apart from her, and I felt at ease with her. I believed that hearing the word of God would make things okay. Many times I thought that I would not make it but when I prayed and trusted in God, I had faith that I would fix things, and this made me want to hold on.

At the age of 13, I got pregnant with my ex-husband, but I had a miscarriage. I was devastated because it was not a mistake. I had prayed to get a baby so that I could love him or her the way I should have been loved. I used to say this to my self until when I conceived a baby. My first baby did not have a chance to live, but since then, I have given birth to 3 beautiful children one girl and two boys.

I raised all the three of my mother children because she had four and I was the oldest and the only girl. You can also say that I raised my mother since I supported her. I later married the guy that I had pursed, and we have been together for 32 years and married for 21 years. He taught me a valuable lesson not to confide in him because he used everything against me later. He did this act in return to hold me active which I am still trying to break it.

Part Two - My Identity

The principal dimension of my identity that is important in defining whom I am is being a firstborn. As a first born, I had to help my mother take care of my younger three brothers. My mother was unable; therefore, I had to take up the role of a parent so that I could support them to get their daily needs. The other dimensions of my identity is being an African American. As an African American, I had to persevere the harsh conditions as I grew up to make it (Byars-Winston 2010). The third dimension that defined my identity was being a Christian. My grandmother had taught me the importance of being a Christian. I learned the importance of prayer in my life. Therefore, when I went through hard situations, I prayed to God. I believed in the power of prayer and that it would help go through these situations effectively.

There was a time that I was proud to be associated with one of the dimensions of my identity which is being a firstborn. This time was when I had worked to provide for my younger brother as well my mother. As I was growing up, the surrounding conditions were very tough especially because my parents were not around. I was taken care of my grandmother and grandfather as my mother was deeply into drugs and alcohol. My three brother looked up to me to provide for them hence I had to work harder. When I became able and started providing for them, I became proud of my dimension of being a firstborn.

Apart from feeling proud due to being the first born, there were times when I felt painful and uncomfortable. When we were young, our mother was deep in drugs and alcohol; therefore, she could not provide for us. We were taken care of by our grandparents as we grew up. However, we could not receive everything that we wanted hence had to go out of my way and provide for my brothers since I was a firstborn. This issue was the time that I felt pain for being a firstborn. It meant that I had to go out my way and go through all the tough circumstances in my life so that I would provide for my brothers. At times I wish that my mother was around to help in raising my younger brothers. But since I was the first born, you had to face the tough conditions to make life easier for my brothers.

Various suprasystems have been relevant in my life. These suprasystems have been significant in the way they have influenced my beliefs, assumptions, and values. One of these supra systems is religion. My grandmother taught me how to pray and attend church often. I heeded her words, and I trusted in prayers every time I was faced with a problem. I had faith in God and the power of prayer. Therefore, I believed that if I could pray when faced with a tough condition, I would successfully endure it. The second suprasystem is being an African American. As an African American, I believed that I was tough and I would succeed in every situation of hardship (Hadjistavropoulos, & Thompson, 2012). This element motivated me to work hard so that I would provide for myself and my three brothers. The last issue is the economic factor. The prevailing economic situation was tough at that time making it hard for us to get our basic needs. Since this was a major factor, I had to make sure that I worked hard so that I could beat the economic situation and be able to provide for my brothers.

Part 3 - Assignments Feedback

Completing the above two activities was interesting for various reasons. The first reason is that the activity one help me to reconnect with my past. During the first activity, I remember the situation that I went through when I was young until now. Also, the first activity helped to identify the major factors that influence me to work hard so that I could provide for my three brothers as well as enable to reach this point in my life. The second activity was also interesting as it helped me to recognize the major dimensions in my life that have been significant in defining who I am. Furthermore, the second activity helped to identify certain situations in my life that helped me feel proud about the dimensions associated with me and those that made me feel uncomfortable. Lastly, the second activity helped to recognize the suprasystems that influence my life as I was growing.

This assignment influences my work as a therapist in that I will have to use the situations that I went through in my life to counseling other people. I will be able to use the experiences of my life as a way of encouraging other people that no hard situation is permanent and that we can endure them (Duncan 2010).

This assignment relates to diversity and culture competency in various ways. First, diversity is related to this assignment in that when one becomes a therapist, he or she has to embrace multiple techniques that will help other people from various walks of life (Watkins Jr 2012). The other issue is culture competency whereby as a therapist, one will have to understand how multiple cultures carry out their activities first. After these activities have been understood well, as a therapist, I will be able to treat other people in ways that are acceptable according to their cultures.

Various experiences values and beliefs that I went through in my life will affect therapy. For instance, I would use my experience to guide others on how they should handle their issues if they were the same. The beliefs that I had was that I believed in the power of prayers to work things out. As a form of treatment during therapy, I would advise someone to pray over his or her issue because faith in God can help in solving various problems. The beliefs that I had when I was growing up was that as a first born I had to ensure that I persevere the situation to be able to provide for my young brothers. This element will help in therapy in that I will advise other that whenever they have someone that is looking up to them, they should be strong so that they can provide for them (Penn, & Post 2012).

When working with clients, there are different dimensions of identity that I may encounter. Some of these dimensions may be challenging to work with when interacting with clients. An example of this dimension are individuals who are white. White people might not take up the values which are believed to be associated with the African Americans. The other dimension of identity that may be challenging to work with are the males. Since I am a female, most men will find it hard to agree with what I recommend them to do during therapy.

When working as a therapist, I meet with different clients. In most cases, I have to use the dimensions of my identity to help some clients (Tsuman-Caspi 2012). However, there are certain dimensions that client cannot work with to deal with their conditions. One of the dimensions of identity that clients might find hard to work with is the religious values (Tsuman-Caspi 2012). Some of the clients do not believe in any religion. Therefore, when they are advised to seek guidance through religion, it may be hard for them to work with that. Some belong to the other religions which are not Christian. Therefore, clients who are Muslims may find it hard to take the kind of therapy that I have recommended to them as they may be based on Christian values.

References

Byars-Winston, A. (2010). The vocational significance of Black identity: Cultural formulationapproach to career assessment and career counseling. Journal of Career Development,37(1), 441-464.

Duncan, B. (2010). On becoming a better therapist. Psychotherapy in Australia, 16(4), 42.

Hadjistavropoulos, H. D., Thompson, M. J., Klein, B., & Austin, D. W. (2012). Dissemination oftherapist-assisted internet cognitive behavior therapy: development and open pilot studyof a workshop. Cognitive behavior therapy, 41(3), 230-240.

Penn, S. L., & Post, P. B. (2012). Investigating various dimensions of play therapists' self-reported multicultural counseling competence. International Journal of Play Therapy,21(1), 14.

Tsuman-Caspi, L. (2012). The identity formation of psychotherapists in training: A dialecticaland personal process. Columbia University.

Watkins Jr, C. E. (2012). On demoralization, therapist identity development, and persuasion andhealing in psychotherapy supervision. Journal of Psychotherapy Integration, 22(3), 187.