Abstract
For the past three decades, researchers who focus on multicultural issues in counseling and psychology have highlighted the impending shift in the population of the United States. Rehabilitation counseling literature has also highlighted the growing population of people of color and, more specifically, those individuals who identify both as people of color and individuals with disabilities. Ongoing challenges with access, utilization, and successful outcomes for individuals with multiple identities have illustrated the complexity in addressing diversity broadly but have also highlighted the need to broaden the focus of multicultural work to examine the intersections of the various identities and lived experiences encountered in practice. This chapter will review the history of multicultural counseling research, teaching, and clinical practice in the discipline and will promote movement toward a more action-oriented paradigm focused on an anti-racist/anti-oppression framework and will provide tools for enhanced training in pedagogy and training for educators and practitioners.
TopChapter Highlights
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Provides overview of multicultural competencies and how the competencies have evolved
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Defines “intersectionality” and discusses the relevance to people of color with disabilities and other historically excluded groups
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Presents an anti-oppression framework and offers utility for both educators and practitioners
TopIntroduction
For well over the past three decades, researchers focusing on multicultural issues in counseling and psychology have highlighted the impending shift in the population of the United States (U.S.) (Arredondo et al., 1996; Sue et al., 1992). These assertions are connected to U.S. Census data projections that historically marginalized racial and ethnic minoritized Americans would surpass the percentage of white Americans somewhere between 2040 and 2050 (U.S. Census Bureau, 2012). Though other counseling professions have highlighted the growing population of people of color entering the counseling profession and utilizing counseling services (Branco et al., 2020; Buchanan et al., 2020), human services literature specifically calls attention to those individuals who identify both as people of color and as individuals with disabilities (Cartwright et al., 2008; Granello & Wheaton, 2001; Middleton et al., 1999; Wilson, 1999, 2000).
The seminal work by Middleton et al. (2000) presented an opportunity for a critical turning point in time and tradition in the helping professions. With a specific focus on the competencies and ethical practices surrounding people of color with disabilities, Middleton et al. (2000) created a platform for guidance on multicultural competencies in rehabilitation counseling. Similar groundwork was achieved almost a decade ago by related disciplines in counseling psychology, social work, and counselor education. With a core focus on cultural competence, Middleton et al. (2000) reviewed years of research, highlighting disparities that occurred in the state-federal vocational rehabilitation system. The article appeared to some as a harbinger of growing health disparities for historically marginalized racial and ethnic groups who also had disabilities across various outcomes, such as access to services, successful case closure, case dollars expended, and employment (Harley et al., 2011).
For approximately 15 years from 2000 – 2015, multicultural competency literature in all counselor education outlets spiked. In particular, rehabilitation counseling spanned topics such as multicultural counseling supervision in rehabilitation counseling (Boston, et al., 2011; Chen & Nguyen-Finn, 2018; Robertson, 2006); an exhaustive review of State-Federal vocational rehabilitation acceptance rates (Bellini, 2003; Wilson, 2001; Wilson et al., 2006); to specific studies focused on multicultural counseling competencies, educational training and ethics (Ahmed et al., 2011; Cartwright & Fleming, 2010; Donnell, 2008; Donnell et al., 2009; Boston et al., 2011; Wilson, et al., 2019), it appeared as though rehabilitation counseling fully embraced an agenda focused on cultural competencies.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Social Justice: In counseling this represents a multifaceted approach in which counselors actively strive to simultaneously promote human development and the common good by intentionally addressing challenges related to both individual and distributive justice.
Intersectional Theory: First coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw, it is the study of interconnected social and political identities and the related impact of structural systems and individual acts of oppression and discrimination.
Anti-Oppression Framework: Actively challenging established truths about identity and seeking to subvert the stability of universalized biological representations of social division to both validate diversity and enhance solidarity based on celebrating differences amongst peoples.
Intersectionality: The convergence of multiple social and political identities for an individual or group that can impact life outcomes.
Advocacy: Upholding social justice as a fundamental principle of practice and demonstrating it by engaging against systems of injustice and focusing on empowerment across three levels: the individual, community, and society at large.
Anti-Racist Pedagogy: Teaching philosophy and practices that acknowledge that racist ideologies transcend individuals and sustain institutional power and policies that maintain racial disparities, cultivating a commitment to actively engage in dismantling these systems and structures of oppression.
Multicultural Counseling Competencies: The foundational knowledge, skills, and awareness counseling professionals need for their own cultural values and biases, the client’s worldview, the dynamics of the counseling relationship, and the implementation of culturally appropriate intervention strategies to facilitate successful client outcomes.