Racism, religious bigotry, sexism/heterosexism and other forms of cultural oppression and social injustice continue to adversely impact the psychological well-being and healthy development of millions of persons all across the United States. There are individual, organizational-institutional and cultural manifestations of these problems. Individual forms of racism, religious bigotry and sexism/heterosexism
Category: Dignity, Development & Diversity
In August 2005, Counseling Today published an article on same-gender parents raising children, and my family was one of three featured in the story. I made an offhand remark in the article about how my family would be traveling for two weeks in Taiwan in late 2005 and early 2006.
We begin the new year by focusing on several key concepts that underlie the multicultural counseling movement. Although the concepts of love, hope and justice are central to the work that culturally competent counselors do, these constructs are not always given the attention they deserve in counselor education training programs
Although the complex problem of racism is often minimized in the minds of many persons, particularly among many White persons in our contemporary society, periodic and blatant manifestations of this problem remind us that this pervasive social pathology continues to exist in our nation. The recent racist and sexist comments
Compared to traditional Western views about counseling, the multicultural-social justice movement promotes very different ways of thinking about mental health, psychological development and the important roles counselors can play in fostering these concepts. The issue of trauma is an excellent example. Significant differences exist in the way many traditionally trained
Multicultural counseling is grounded in social justice perspectives about human development and psychological well-being. These perspectives contrast sharply with the traditional individualistic, intrapsychic theoretical focus that many counselors have been and, in many instances, continue to be trained to implement in their work. It is well known that the multicultural-social
Cancer is a nondiscriminatory disease. It impacts persons from all cultural, ethnic and racial groups and backgrounds. The American Cancer Society reports that, as the second leading cause of death in the United States, cancer is projected to affect more than 1.4 million Americans by the end of 2006. Of
This is the final article in a four-part series related to the complex problem of institutional racism. In the first two columns (see March 2006 and April 2006), we outlined the different ways that institutional racism continues to be perpetuated in our contemporary society. The June 2006 column was designed
This article is the second in a four-part series that explores Relational-Cultural Theory (RCT) and its relevance for the work which counselors do in the field. In this month’s column, we build on the issues addressed in the first part of the series by exploring several concepts central to RCT.
The multicultural counseling movement has taken center stage in the counseling profession. In doing so, it is transforming the way many persons think about their roles as professional helpers and the types of competencies they need to acquire to foster the healthy development of larger numbers of people from diverse