ABSTRACT
This book largely grew from our own frustration with parts of the literature suggesting that some cultural variable “should be considered” or that therapists “should be aware of” a cultural factor in order to engage in some culturally sensitive intervention—but clinical strategies or application guidelines were often noticeably absent. In most cases, these comments were never followed with specifics of how culture should be considered or developed, leaving the reader wondering how to practically include culture in counseling. This book was envisioned to include authors who could discuss practical ways of including culture throughout the counseling process, instead of relying on individuals to just “consider cultural issues.” Thus, the goal of this book is to provide readers with a “start-to-finish” approach to implementing culture into each major component of the therapeutic process. This book is structured such that each chapter equates to a particular stage of therapy, beginning with self-awareness and knowledge, and ending with the inclusion of culture when terminating treatment. It is intended to focus on the individual (therapist and client), rather than agency or community levels of cultural competence. In the following, we set the stage for the rest of the book by providing a brief introduction of: (a) defining levels of culture, (b) cultural salience, (c) the multicultural movement, and (d) the history of multicultural competencies.
