Counseling Diverse Adolescents and Adults

For many years, counseling professionals have tried to advance research in the knowledge and techniques essential to effective multicultural counseling. Despite such efforts, many counselors still have difficulty meeting the needs of ethnic minority clients (Sue & Zane, 1987). According to Stein ( 1997), many multicultural courses present only a broad view of multicultural concepts without adequately preparing practitioners to actually counsel diverse populations. The resulting confusion counselors experience in their relationships with minority clients may be one of the reasons that counseling is underutilized by many cultural groups. Brown ( as cited in Marino, 1996) commented that African Americans generally terminate individual counseling after only one or two sessions. Sue and Zane (1987) reported a similar problem among Asian American populations. Likewise, group counseling, considered a practical and efficient treatment strategy, is either improperly conducted or poorly attended by minorities (Ho, 1992)