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 individu-als 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 as-pects from the multicultural literature regarding culturally competent prac-tice and apply it to the training of vocational counselors. KEY WORDS: multicultural; career counseling; graduate training. Never before has the United States population consisted of such an abundantly rich multiracial, multiethnic, and multilingual mix. In a short period of time it is projected that people of color will be the majority in the United States. Because of this increased diversity, there is a pressing need for career counselors to have awareness, knowledge and skills to work with an increasingly diverse clientele. Career counselors are in a unique position to serve as social justice advocates in helping racial and ethnic minorities move into the schools and workplaces that have long discriminated against and mar-ginalized them. at PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV on May 9, 2016jcd.sagepub.comDownloaded from 182 There is evidence however, that racial and ethnic minorities under-utilize both generic mental health services and college/university coun-seling or career services (Brown, Brooks & Associates, 1990; Gysbers, Heppner, & Johnston, 1998). Research has indicated a greater likeli-hood for racial and ethnic minorities to terminate after only one ses-sion of counseling (Sue & Sue, 1990). Others have conjectured that this premature termination may be due to the lack of culturally simi-lar professionals, poorly trained career counselors, and culturally bi-ased practices and techniques (Atkinson, Jennings, & Liongson, 1990