Essay: Why Culture Matters For this assignment you will write an essay that explains your thoughts about the importance of culture in counseling. Your essay must be a minimum of 750 words in length and must include concepts from your reading for Lesson 1. You must include two or more citations and references (in APA format) from this lesson, including at least one from each required reading. You can find information about APA format in the Appendix. In your essay, you must:

1. Explain and give examples of four ways that the cultures of the client and counselor can affect the counseling process and the development of a strong counseling relationship;

2. Explain and give examples of three ways that a client's worldview might be different from that of the counselor;

3. Discuss how important or unimportant you think it is for a counselor to understand a client's culture. Use information from the readings for this lesson to support your opinions. If you do not think it is important to understand and adapt your counseling to a client's culture, explain why and give examples to support your opinion.

Your essay will be graded using the following criteria:

1. Completeness - did your essay include all of the required information in the assignment instructions?  

2. Evidence of critical thinking - does your essay show that you can apply the concepts in your readings to real life situations, as evidenced by your ability to provide examples and connect ideas in a logical manner?

3. Writing skills - was your essay written using proper English spelling, grammar, and punctuation?

4. Citations and references - did your essay include concepts demonstrating your understanding of the reading materials for this lesson, including the required number of citations and references?