ABSTRACT
The United States has had the greatest ethnic diversity of any nation in history, but until recently, public discussion of differences among American ethnic groups has been virtually taboo. We have talked about the melting pot and blinded ourselves to our country's inherent diversity. But ethnicity should be of interest to all family therapists, because cultural norms and values prescribe the "rules" by which families operate, including how family members identify, define, and attempt to solve their problems, and how they seek help. We believe that therapists who appreciate the cultural relativity of family life are in a position to intervene more effectively and that a therapist's own ethnicity influences the helping process. Furthermore, our therapeutic models are themselves reflections of the cultures in which they developed (McGoldrick, Pearce, & Giordano, 1982). Our pilot study of family therapists (McGoldrick & Rohrbaugh, 1987) suggests that ethnic stereo-
types are maintained in the minds of family therapists whose families already have been in the United States for several generations.
