For this assignment, you are invited to engage in a reflection pertaining to your cultural identity. Being a marriage and family therapist, involves engaging in a constant self-reflection and self-examination. This activity offers you an opportunity to engage in a reflection pertaining to your understanding of how your own diverse experiences contributed to who you are today and will eventually inform your clinical practice. As part of this activity, you will develop an artistic presentation that illustrates your cultural values, beliefs, and assumptions will be expected to take risks, show vulnerability, and describe your learning process around this dimension of culture.

Choose a dimension of culture (e.g., race, gender, class, sexual orientation, ability status, religion, etc.) that helps to define you. In deciding which dimension to choose, consider selecting the dimension of self that would afford you the opportunity to tell an infrequent, or perhaps a never told story about yourself. The dimension you choose could be any one of the following: a) the part of you that is the source (or target) of something that relates to your hidden emotional/psychological pain and suffering; b) the part of you that is responsible for or connected to the pain and suffering of others; c) the part of you that you feel most passionate about changing; or d) the part of you that presents the biggest threat to your efficacy as a family therapist. This assignment is left somewhat “open-ended” on purpose. Consider something about you that makes you “different,” “unique,” or just something about your life that has taught you lessons or made you who you are. Feel free to check in with your professor if you would like feedback on your topic. While selecting the focus of your presentation, reflect on how this specific aspect will influence the provision of therapeutic services to diverse clients that you will encounter during your therapeutic journey. What about this experience or piece of your identity do you think will help or hinder you as a therapist and how might you either cope with or embrace these elements of self.

Step One: Once you have decided on the dimension you would like to explore, think of at least 10 broad categories that you believe constitute the foundation of who you are regarding this particular dimension. For example, depending on the dimension you selected, you might determine that themes such as suffering, survival, resiliency, and pride comprise your foundation.

Step Two: Take a minimum of 10 photographs or select images that you believe capture the essence of each category. The images/photographs should be metaphorical, abstract, interpretive, and/or symbolic. In other words, your photos should encourage the observer to look deeply and differently into the photos to view what may not be totally obvious.

Step Three: Arrange your images/photos in a way that you think fits better to tell your story. For this purpose you may use a poster board and then scan the obtained image or you may use to create a PowerPoint or Prezi presentation. Be creative and let the technology help you illustrate your ideas.

Step Four: Select a song, movie clip, or piece of literary work that tells the story your portrait is designed to tell. The medium does not have to tell the entire story, however, it should at least augment the intent of your portrait. Incorporate the sound into your presentation.

Step Five: This is the presentation stage of the assignment. Please submit your final project to your professor to observe, listen to, and discuss.

Please be sure to include course related citations and synthesis into your assignment to support your points.

Option 2: Presentation Narration
For this second option, you will upload a completed presentation. You will include the speaker notes embedded in the presentation discussing the content in your own words.

Incorporate appropriate animations, transitions, and graphics as well as “speaker notes” for each slide. The speaker notes may be comprised of brief paragraphs or bulleted lists.

Please note that some files are too large to be uploaded through NCUOne. If your file exceeds this size, please email a link to your PowerPoint presentation to your professor using Microsoft One Drive instead of attempting to submit it through NCUOne. You would then also upload a Microsoft Word document in NCUOne stating that you have submitted your assignment via email due to file size. Please contact the NCU Help Desk for technical support, if needed.

Length: 12-15 slides

Notes Length: 100-150 words per slide

Be sure to include citations for quotations and paraphrases with references in APA format and style. Save the file as PPT with the correct course code information.

Watts-Jones, T. D. (2010). Location of self: opening the door to dialogue on intersectionality in the therapy process. Family Process, 49(3), 405-420. doi:10.1111/j.1545-5300.2010.01330.x (PLEASE SEE ATTACHMENT)

Hernandez-Wolfe, P., & McDowell, T. (2013). Social Privilege and Accountability: Lessons from Family Therapy Educators. Journal Of Feminist Family Therapy, 25(1), 1-16. doi:10.1080/08952833.2013.755079(PLEASE SEE ATTACHMENT)