Within U.S. psychology, there has been a growing effort to develop
empirically supported treatments for minority populations, more elaborate
descriptions of specific cultural groups, and assessment tools to measure
psychotherapists' cultural competence. Although multicultural counseling
competence seems simply to point to a skill set consisting of knowledge,
awareness and beliefs, embedded within it are a series of assumptions that
remain widely unquestioned.
Because these assumptions involve how we define the project of
psychotherapy and more importantly how we define the individual, culture,
identity and difference, they are in need of examination.
This co-authored qualitative study examines the intersection of multicultural
counseling competence and psychotherapists' investments in identity.