Multicultural
    Counseling

... research resources for counselling students

Web Destinations

Key Sites for Practitioners

The Multicultural Pavilion
The Multicultural Pavilion at the University of Virginia is intended to assess and view Internet resources in a multicultural perspective. Features include a teacher's corner, awareness activities, research, international projects, several multicultural pages, and even an art and photo gallery.
http://curry.edschool.virginia.edu/go/multicultural

University of Maryland's Diversity Database
The home page below is a crossroads that allows the visitor to select from a variety of diversity issues, including finding information about syllabi for diversity courses, getting information about specific populations, finding references, scanning news, and finding diversity initiatives. Consider this to be a first stop in your research for areas of ethnic, race, religious, and gender differences.
http://www.inform.umd.edu/EdRes/Topic/Diversity/

Key Sites for Client Information

The sites listed here can be visited by counselors who wish to learn more about other cultural groups. There are many such sites. These provide a starting point with links to other areas.

The African-American Mosaic
The African-American Mosaic is an online study of black history and culture. It is also the resource guide to the Library of Congress's African-American collection. The areas of focus are: Colonization, Abolition, Migrations, and WPA. This site represents a sample of a larger exhibit on the African-American experience and influences in the United States.
http://lcweb.loc.gov/exhibits/african/intro.html

AfroAmerican Web Ring
A web ring is an organization of related sites that can be reached through a central directory. The AfroAmerican Web Ring brings together over 400 websites addressing virtually all aspects of African-American life. Using the search engine, you can find specific information or scroll through the more than 2000 topics. Many are businesses.
http://r.webring.com/hub?ring=aroa

Asian Nation
A major site for Asian-American history, links, and current issues affecting this fast-growing segment of the population.
http://www.asian-nation.org/index.shtml

Center for the Study of White American Culture Inc.
Despite the headline of this site, this is not an organization of white supremacists. It is a multiracial organization examining whiteness and white American culture. There are links to other multicultural pages.
http://www.euroamerican.org/

Professional Development

Professional Organizations

Association for Multicultural Counseling and Development (AMCD)
The Association for Multicultural Counseling and Development is a division of the American Counseling Association. This site provides membership information, AMCD publications, and multicultural training and standards. AMCD Publishes The Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development. Contact AMCD at:

American Counseling Association
5999 Stevenson Avenue
Alexandria, VA 22304-3300
Tel: (800) 347-6647 or (703) 823-9800
Fax: (703) 823-0252
http://www.amcd-aca.org/

International Association for Cross Cultural Psychology (IACCP)
This organization is truly international. The website lists publications sponsored by the organization, including the Journal of Cross Cultural Counseling, as well as links to other resources, including training programs in multicultural and cross-cultural counseling and psychology worldwide. Membership information can be found at the website.
http://www.fit.edu/CampusLife/clubs-org/iaccp/

Codes of Ethics

APA Guidelines for Ethnic, Linguistic, and Culturally Diverse Populations
A new set of guidelines was promulgated by the American Psychological Association in 2002, which can be accessed via the following website:
http://www.apa.org/pi/multiculturalguidelines/historical.html

Association for Multicultural Counseling and Development (AMCD)
AMCD members adhere to the American Counseling Association's ethical standards.
http://www.counseling.org

Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility
This organization promotes responsible computer use and opposes racism on the Web.
http://www.cpsr.org/ e-mail: webmaster@cpsr.org

Annotated Bibliography

Foundational Works

Harrison, R., & Hopkins, R. (1967). The design of cross-cultural training: An alternative to the university model. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 3, 431-460.
This article stands out because it puts forward the idea that experiential training (field based experience) is important in multicultural preparation of clinicians. The authors admit that both knowledge and special experiences are needed, but the emphasis should be on real-world learning.

Helms, J. E. (1990). Black and white racial identity: Theory, research, and practice. New York: Greenwood Press.
The text is an amalgamation of several sources from social science and behavioral literature regarding racial identity in an attempt to understand differences between blacks and whites. The author examines race from a psychological viewpoint.

Marsella, A. J., & Pedersen, P. (Eds.). (1981). Cross-cultural counseling and psychotherapy. New York: Pergamon.
The editors have included chapters by well-respected experts, including Sue, Goldstein, Draguns, and Lambert. It is an important book since it records the state of the art in multicultural counseling during its infancy. The articles range from history and foundations to the evaluation of different theoretical systems to specific populations and future perspectives.

Murphy, G. (1955). The cultural context of guidance. Personnel and Guidance Journal, 34, 4-9.
One of the first articles published by the journal focusing on cultural values and the counselor. Murphy asks the question, "Should the counselor force values on the client?" Murphy also stresses that counselors must increase their knowledge of cultures different from their own and that their primary task is to help the client discover his or her own values.

Pederson, P. B. (Ed.). (1985). Handbook of cross-cultural counseling and therapy. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
The history of cross-cultural counseling, its theories, assumptions, and future path are investigated in this volume. Leading authors in 40 subspecialties discuss cross-culture perspectives, methods, and reasons for conflict. The book addresses culturally sensitive aspects of counseling, and gives guidelines for the education and training of cross-cultural counselors.

Wrenn, G. C. (1962). The culturally encapsulated counselor. Harvard Educational Review, 32, 444-449.
Wrenn was one of the first to turn attention to the fact that many counselors are "encapsulated," in that they do not understand other cultures and are therefore unable to relate to different clients, especially those who are culturally different and "disadvantaged." This article is thought to have spurred research into the role of culture in the counseling relationship.

Key Current Works

American Psychological Association. (1993). Guidelines for providers of psychological services to ethnic, linguistic, and culturally diverse populations. American Psychologist, 48, 45-48.
The document calls on psychologists to recognize the "sociocultural framework" of clients and to develop knowledge and skills to recognize cultural diversity and help clients to recognize their own cultural identities. See website that follows for 2002 revision.

American School Counselor Association. (1993). The school counselor and cross/multicultural counseling: The position of the American School Counselor Association. Alexandria, VA: Author.
This position paper is available from ASCA. It outlines the skills, attitudes, and knowledge that a school counselor must develop to deal with diverse populations.

Friedman, S. (Ed.). (1997). Cultural issues in the treatment of anxiety. New York: Guilford.
Friedman's book brings together research and practice issues in a series of articles by experts on anxiety treatment. Using a generic treatment model, he describes appropriate treatments for clients from a number of backgrounds, including East Indian, Jewish Orthodox, and Caribbean, along with larger ethnic groups such as African-Americans.

Good, G. E., Gilbert, L. A., & Scher, M. (1990). Gender aware therapy: A synthesis of feminist therapy and knowledge about gender. Journal of Counseling and Development, 68, 376-380.
The authors combine feminist therapy and current research and theories, and derive a new way to conceptualize gender aware therapy.

Kiselica, M. S. (1998). Preparing Anglos for the challenges and joys of multiculturalism. The Counseling Psychologist, 26, 5-21.
This article offers guidelines for training Anglos to confront white racism, to respond to challenges from ethnic/minority colleagues or clients, and to embrace multicultural counseling.

Lock, D. C. (1998). Increasing multicultural understanding. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Lock's book is designed to provide an overview of the multicultural perspective and to serve as a basic foundation for teachers and students of counseling and education.

McGoldrick, M., Giordano, J., & Pearce J. (Eds.). (1996). Ethnicity and family therapy (2nd ed.). New York: Guilford.
This text covers cultural influences experienced in clinical practice. The editors have assembled articles that consider ways of approaching 23 different ethnic and minority groups.

Paniagua, F. A. (1998). Assessing and treating culturally diverse clients: A practical guide (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Paniagua gives guidelines for counseling Hispanic, Asian, American Indian, and African-American clients in separate chapters. His approach is practical because he is interested in addressing cultural issues that can result in real-world problems of attrition, inaccurate diagnosis, and culturally biased assessment.

Pedersen, P. (2000). A handbook for developing multicultural awareness. Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association.
Pedersen's book is a scholarly approach that is divided into three parts: Awareness, Knowledge, and Skills. The awareness section focuses on looking at personal assumptions. Knowledge includes a review of research, ethics, and cultural identity. Skills include counseling and training methods for working with those from other cultures.

Pedersen, P. B., Draguns, J. G., Lonner, W. J., & Trimble, J. E. (Eds.). (2002). Counseling across cultures. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
This volume emphasizes the need for awareness of cultural context in assessment and interventions. Several ethnic and minority groups are discussed. This book serves well as a resource for scholars, students, and professionals in counseling and related fields.

Ponterotto, J. G., Casas, J. M., Suzuki, L. A., & Alexander, C. M. (Eds.) (2001). Handbook of multicultural counseling. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
This work contains information from scholars that are on the forefront of multiculturalism in counseling. The contributors discuss recent developments in theories, research, therapy, and therapist training.

Pope-Davis, D. B., & Coleman, H. L. K. (1997). Multicultural counseling competence: Assessment, education and training, and supervision. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Although the book is reputedly for practitioners, it is more a resource for counselor educators, trainers, and supervisors. It is an edited book, with many well-known authors in multicultural counseling. In Part I, assessment of multicultural competence is addressed, including philosophy and portfolio assessment. Part II is on multicultural education and training and looks at gender, training models, pedagogy, and curriculum. Part III looks at multicultural issues in the supervision of counselors.

Sue, D. W., Arrendondo, P., & McDavis, R. J. (1992). Multicultural counseling competencies and standards. Journal of Counseling & Development, 70, 477-486.
This article proposes that multicultural counseling is both a specialty area and a part of the general preparation of counselors. The article discusses the ineffectiveness of techniques and assessment methods with nonwhite populations, a factor that looms larger for American counselors, considering the diversification of the United States. Sociopolitical realities also make these competencies more pressing. The article also addresses ethical issues.

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