Multicultural Counseling Competencies

Assessment, Education and Training, and Supervision

"Multicultural Counseling Competence represents the next giant step toward implementing multicultural standards into the counseling profession. Logically organized and with a list of impressive contributors, . . . this book not only is well grounded in theory and research but is a practical guide to how graduate schools of counseling, clinical psychology, social work, and other helping professions might infuse multicultural competence into their faculty and students, curriculum, field work, and supervision. . . . The editors have made a major substantive contribution to the counseling profession with this text. They have accepted the challenge of cultural diversity and are serving the roles of pioneers in seeking both individual and institutional multicultural competence." --from the Foreword by Derald Wing Sue Professional associations such as the American Psychological Association and the American Counseling Association are beginning to mandate cultural counseling competencies in their ethical guidelines. That is, counselors who work with ethnically, linguistically, and culturally diverse clients must be multiculturally competent. How can multicultural competency be assessed in counselors? How can these competencies be acquired? In this volume, a cast of leading researchers and educators in multicultural counseling and psychology addresses the issues of what makes a counselor multiculturally competent and how to create more culturally competent counselors. Multicultural Counseling Competence considers ways to evaluate counselors for their awareness, knowledge, and skills in working with a broad spectrum of populations. Chapters also examine at length the pedagogical implications of establishing competencies, including training philosophies and models as well as course and curriculum development. Likewise, a group of contributors consider the impact that multiculturalism has on supervision and the theories and strategies that supervisors can use to ensure a culturally competent clinical environment. A cornerstone volume, Multicultural Counseling Competence pulls together the essence of issues facing the establishment of competencies. Counseling educators and supervisors especially will want to use this book to ensure that their programs help counselors become more culturally aware and serve all clients with efficiency and respect.