ABSTRACT
Multiculturalism is now well established as relevant to the theory and practice of mainstream counselling. It has, however, been slower to engage interest and commitment in the United Kingdom than in the United States, where it originated over two decades ago. Reasons for this are varied but, since the term ‘multiculturalism’ misleadingly implies ethnicity, it probably (in part) relates to the relative sizes of the ethnic minority populations of the two countries. In the UK ethnic minority populations are estimated to be 4.7 per cent of the overall population (Labour Force Survey 1988-1990, quoted in Jones 1993:12), compared with the USA where they are estimated to be 24.4 per cent (US Bureau of the Census 1990, quoted in Bernal and Castro 1994:797). Consequently, there may appear to be less of a practical, moral and ethical imperative in the UK for counsellors to adopt this approach. Kareem and Littlewood (1992:5) argue that the relative ‘psychotherapeutic neglect’ of minority groups in Britain can be attributed to the fact that ‘the United States, unlike Britain, has considered itself explicitly as a country of immigrants’.
