Multicultural Career Counseling: Ten Essentials for Training

In the past 20 years, several changes have taken place within the field of counseling and psychology with regard to practice and research with individuals from racial/ethnic groups. At the same time, the United States population has experienced a dramatic shift in its composition. Both have contributed to transformations in graduate training. This article will highlight salient aspects from the multicultural literature regarding culturally competent practice and apply it to the training of vocational counselors.

Graduate Students' Training Experiences with Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Issues

The doctoral training experiences of 69 counseling and 38 clinical psychology graduate students in lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) issues prior to internship were examined. Descriptive statistics revealed that training in these issues was inadequate. A majority of respondents did not feel that their course work prepared them well to work with LGB clients. Less training was provided in bisexual issues than gay or lesbian issues. Comparisons between clinical and counseling respondents indicated that counseling programs had better records of training in LGB issues. Multiple regressions revealed several predictors of respondents' feelings of preparation to work with LGB clients, including formal training experiences, encouragement to explore heterosexist biases, modeling by trainers, and personal experiences and contacts. Results varied by target group (i.e., patterns of prediction differed for preparation to work with lesbian women, gay men, or bisexual people). Implications for training and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Internship and Initial Job Placements in Counseling Psychology

A 26-year retrospective study was conducted on internship and initial job placements of counseling psychologists. The results indicated that university counseling centers consistently supported the highest percentage of the field’s predoctoral interns followed by Veteran Administration Medical Centers, other hospital settings, and community mental health centers. Initial job placements indicated relative parity among placements in academic, community mental health, counseling center, and private practice settings with Veterans Administration Medical Centers and other hospital settings accounting for significant percentages of the field’s initial job placements. In addition, changes in internship and job placements across time indicated that various contexts have waxed or waned in their contribution to the training and placement of counseling psychologists. Results are discussed in relation to the evolving identity of counseling psychology as a specialty and the contexts that support and challenge that development.

Diversity in the Ivory White Tower

Scholars have highlighted the importance of recruitment, retention, and promotion of racial-ethnic minority faculty for the field of counseling psychology. This study examines the specialty’s progress by chronicling the racial-ethnic composition of faculty in counseling psychology programs across time. The findings summarized begin to reveal the level of progress made toward increasing faculty racial-ethnic diversity within the field. Data generally support the collective success of counseling psychology programs in increasing racial-ethnic diversity of faculty but also highlight some of the challenges that remain to be addressed. Several possible interpretations, implications, and limitations of these findings are discussed in relation to counseling psychology’s continuing support of multiculturalism as a distinctive feature of its identity and its objectives as a specialty.

Training in Supervision

This study examined the current state of affairs of training in the practice of supervision in doctoral programs and predoctoral internship sites accredited by the American Psychological Association. Results indicated that although a majority of programs and sites offered some type of opportunity for training in supervision, there were differences in the methods and extent of the training. In particular, statistically significant differences were found between the training offered in counseling psychology programs when compared to clinical psychology programs, and in university counseling center internship programs when compared to other types of internship sites. The more extensive training in supervision offered among counseling psychology programs and counseling center internship sites is discussed in terms of the identity of counseling psychology and the future of professional psychology in general. Recommendations for enhancing training in the conduct of supervision and directions for further research are also offered.

South African clinical psychology’s response to cultural diversity, globalisation and multiculturalism: a review

This article reviews responses of South African clinical psychologists to multicultural issues within an increasingly diverse and globalised context. Psychological perspectives on diversity, multiculturalism, and globalisation are presented initially as background to a review of multicultural and cross-cultural clinical psychological research conducted within the South African context. The discussion is located within the context of South African psychologists’ historical response to multicultural issues, within a unique socio-political situation. Implications for ongoing development of relevant clinical psychology services to address the diverse needs of all sectors of South African society are also discussed.

Integrating Internationalization in Counseling Psychology Training Programs

Previous scholars have made specific suggestions regarding what counseling psychology training programs can do to help future psychologists become more cross-culturally aware. This article addresses the questions of whether and how U.S. counseling psychology training programs are currently employing these suggestions. Forty-seven American Psychological Association— accredited counseling psychology programs responded (67% response rate) to a survey designed to assess the availability of international training opportunities to graduate students in counseling psychology. In-depth interviews were also conducted with faculty members from 10 programs. Several ideas emerged from the data, including the role of students and the most common obstacles for developing an international perspective. Specific examples of programs' international activities are provided, and recommendations for future research are discussed.

Integrating Practice Guidelines Into Professional Training

The authors present the findings of a special task group (STG) organized to explore effective training strategies for the practice guidelines focused on diverse populations. They provide a brief literature review and summarize survey data from academic training directors regarding current use of practice guidelines. The authors then describe the Integrative Training Model (ITM), developed by the STG, as a framework for students and professionals to incorporate the complex array of information contained in each set of guidelines. Unique challenges associated with incorporating the ITM are described, as well as pedagogical considerations for both students and current professionals. The authors believe the ITM may help students and professionals increase their diversity competence by developing a more holistic understanding of the various dimensions and social group experiences that affect their clients and themselves.

Complexities of the Latina experience: a tribute to Martha Bernal

This address discusses educational attainment rates among Latinas and factors that militate against their educational and professional achievement. The roles of family, community, discrimination, and strategies to counteract discrimination are discussed. It also contains a tribute to a Latina pioneer in psychology, Martha Bernal.

What's missing from multicultural competency research: review, introspection, and recommendations

Much of the multicultural counseling research has pointed out the need for counselors to become culturally competent to appropriately address the needs of an emerging diverse community. To date, however, this body of research has largely focused on counselor competencies, with little attention being given to the client perspective of multicultural counseling competencies. This article discusses the importance of integrating the client perspective within the historical context of the multicultural literature by examining client preferences and expectations, as well as the adequacy of the current empirical data. The authors also raise the issue of politics inherent in multiculturalism and discuss how this affects the research. A number of recommendations are made as a guide for future research.

Understanding cultural aspects of health through photography

Photography is used as a means to teach nursing students of varying learning styles and levels of cultural awareness about cultural aspects of health.

The development and initial validation of the Multicultural Environmental Inventory: a preliminary investigation

This article describes the development and initial validation of the Multicultural Environmental Inventory (MEI). The MEI is an instrument designed to measure an individual's perceptions about the degree to which graduate counseling programs address multicultural issues within curriculum, supervision, climate, and research. This investigation was conducted using the data from 208 students and faculty from counseling psychology graduate programs across the United States approved by the American Psychological Association. By using techniques of exploratory factor analysis, a 4-factor solution was determined to account for the relationships among the items on the MEI. The instrument was modified from 53 to 27 items on the basis of the items' effectiveness in measuring the underlying constructs of interest, and internal consistency information is provided on the final revised instrument (MEI-R). The factors underlying the MEI-R are discussed within the context of a multicultural environment in graduate counseling programs, and directions for future research are considered.