Diana Pitaru

It’s freezing at 4AM on Christmas eve. I am 4, my sister 8. We are both standing in the cold; she is holding tight to the ration card that would allow us to buy 1 liter of milk, our weekly allowance. The line is curbing behind the store, but luckily we got here early enough to be amongst the first 10 people in line. My parents are each standing in separate lines waiting for the bread and meat stores to open.

I just returned from a residency offered by my school in Orlando, FL. I absolutely loved the experience, the lectures, networking opportunities, and finally being able to meet everyone. I got quite a role-play “workout” during my time there and can honestly say that I am a lot more confident regarding counseling skills and ethical and multicultural competencies. Although my experience would highly deserve an article, I decided I would focus on something else: judgments and prejudices. So, how long does it take to look at someone you’ve never seen before and label them?

I am a counselor, I am a student. I feel for the fellow students who got into the counseling profession out of passion and care for the ones around them, almost never complaining about the amount of work required to finish the degree, the grim prospects of finding an internship or a job in a lousy economy, the poor pay, oh...we work hard to enter and stay in this business, we pay for it too. If you were to take a sample of students and ask them if they regret the choice they made by getting in this profession, I can almost guarantee that very few will answer yes.

I am currently reading a book on counseling theories; although I have taken the class, I feel I need a refresher once in a while just to keep myself in check. As I was reading, it became evident that I could not subscribe to one theory only and that the choice of using certain theories over the others is heavily influenced by who I am, my style, personality, personal experiences with therapy, etc. My interest in Gestalt therapy was apparent immediately after reading the existential chapter in my theories book a few years ago. Although I knew I could never use Gestalt only in my therapy, I left my options open and also discovered an interest in Jung and Adler.

I am not an American; I was born and raised in Romania and although I have American citizenship, I don’t identify as one. I moved to the states 6 years ago and even though it may not seem long, my transition (assimilation) into the American culture has not been easy, well it is not easy since I am still trying to adapt. You can see then, where my interest in multicultural counseling comes from: experience mainly, experience that taught me a lot about being aware of who I am, the importance of where I am from, and what my role is here.