ABSTRACT

The profession of counseling in the United States has a rich history dating back to the beginning of the 20th century (e.g., Blocher, 2000; Heppner, Casas, Carter, & Stone, 2000: Whitely, 1984). During the rst 50 years of its existence, the profession was shaped by an interest in providing vocational services in the schools and community, a desire to develop and employ a variety of psychometrically sound psychological measures and assessment strategies, and a commitment to offer counseling to individuals in need. Since the 1960s, the counseling profession in the United States has expanded its focus to offer a wide variety of preventive, psycho-educational, and remedial services (e.g., counseling, consultation, assessment, policy development and implementation, training) to a highly diverse clientele (e.g., individuals, families, groups, communities, organizations). In the early 1980s, the profession broadened its perspective even further by recognizing the need to design and implement culturally sensitive counseling delivery models and strategies to effectively assist persons from different ethnic, racial, and socioeconomic backgrounds, individuals with physical disabilities, and persons representing diverse sexual orientations (Ponterotto, Casas, Suzuki, & Alexander, 2001; Sue & Sue, 2003). This multicultural perspective has become a major force and hallmark of the profession. In recent years, signicant steps have also been taken to internationalize the U.S. counseling profession (Heppner, Leong, & Chiao, in press).