Multicultural Counseling: Perspectives from Counselors as Clients of Color

True multicultural 'competence' in counseling or therapy must start with a deep understanding and acknowledgement that other people's worldview is as legitimate to them as yours is to you, and until you recognize the worth or legitimacy of someone else's views, you will have a hard time communicating across cultural boundaries. This text is unique in that it is the first book to recognize this legitimacy and allow the firsthand telling of cultural stories (that encompass race, ethnicity, class, gender, and life cycle) of African American, Asian, Hispanic/Latino, and Native American Indian people's experiences of mental health services. Additionally, it is the first to concentrate specifically on both successful and unsuccessful experiences (shunned, dropped out, or experienced what they perceive to be unsuccessful counseling) of people of color. Using real cases, narratives, and biographical material, each chapter motivates the reader to ponder and challenge how issues related to mental health intersect with race and ethnicity within a broader diversity framework. As the book's centerpiece is a series of interviews conducted by the author, with practitioners, supervisors, and educators in the mental health fields who are themselves African American, Asian American, Hispanic and Native American. The reader is treated to the ultimate insider's perspective as the interviewee is a client/counselor/person of color who can speak eloquently and clinically about the experiences of being a client of color and thereby instruct the practitioner/student/reader on how to improve that experience.Marbley, Aretha is the author of 'Multicultural Counseling: Perspectives from Counselors as Clients of Color', published 2009 under ISBN 9780415956864 and ISBN 0415956862.