Describe how multicultural counseling emerged.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The increasing diversity of the U.S. influenced the counseling profession. However, literature on multicultural counseling did not proliferate until the 1960’s due to segregation, racism, and discrimination in society. The “melting pot” was the metaphor and ideology in the U.S., which believed that people from various cultural groups could coexist and form into a common culture by identifying similarities and ignoring differences among groups of individuals. This led to the erroneous belief that counseling theories and practices could effectively be applied to a variety of people. In the 1970’s, the Association of Non-White Concerns and the Journal of Non-White Concerns was established. During this time, the multicultural perspective shifted responsibility to counselors to accommodate clients’ culturally diverse backgrounds and examine how counselors’ perceptions and biases influence the counseling relationship. In the 1980’s and 1990’s, multicultural counseling continued to flourish and other diverse groups began to be focused on (not just non-white groups). Currently, there is increased attention to global and international affairs. There is also more of a focus on the intersection of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, economic status, age, and religious identity.