Multicultural Counseling

Perspectives from Counselors as Clients of Color

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This text is unique in that it is the first book to recognize that true multicultural ‘competence’ in counseling or therapy must start with a deep understanding and acknowledgement that other people's worldview is as legitimate to them as yours is to you. Until you recognize the worth or legitimacy of someone else's views, you will have a hard time communicating across cultural boundaries.

Multicultural Counseling contains the firsthand telling of cultural stories (that encompass race, ethnicity, class, gender, and life cycle) of African American, Asian, Hispanic/Latino, and Native American Indian people’s experiences of mental health services. Using real cases, narratives, and biographical material, each chapter motivates the reader to ponder and challenge how issues related to mental health intersect with race and ethnicity within a broader diversity framework. Interviews conducted by the author, with practitioners, supervisors, and educators in the mental health fields who are themselves African American, Asian American, Hispanic and Native American, concentrate specifically on both successful and unsuccessful experiences (shunned, dropped out, or experienced what they perceive to be unsuccessful counseling) of people of color. These counselors not only have the experience and perception of being clients, but by their status as practitioners, educators, and supervisors, they have the affluent, rich language and the knowledge of the counseling profession that other untrained clients may lack. Thus the reader is treated to the ultimate insider’s perspective as the interviewee is a client/counselor/person of color who can speak eloquently and clinically about the experiences of being a client of color and thereby instruct the practitioner/student/reader on how to improve that experience.

Table of Contents

Prologue. Background Information.The Themes Emerging from Their Stories. The African Experience in America. The Asian Experience in America. The Hispanic Client’s Experience. The Native American Indian Client’s Story. Stories of a Proud People. Gender: Gunpowder and Lead. Drum Majors for Justice: Social Justice Efforts for Women and People of Color. The Follow-up Interviews - 12 Years Later. Engendering Hope: Reconciliation and the Power of Forgiveness.