ABSTRACT
Among the contemporary issues facing professional counselors, addressing the mental health and educational needs of the growing number of clients from culturally diverse backgrounds are, perhaps, the most challenging. Counseling theory and practice has been greatly impacted by the changing demographics and social dynamics that characterize the 21st century. As an example, data from the 2010 Census underscore the scope of the nation’s changing racial and ethnic diversity. A review of racial and ethnic group distributions nationally shows that while the non-Hispanic White alone population is still numerically and proportionally the largest major race and ethnic group in the United States, it is also growing at the slowest rate. During the past 10 years, it has been the Hispanic population and the Asian population that have grown considerably, in part due to relatively higher levels of immigration (Humes, Jones, & Ramirez, 2011 ).
