Multicultural Counseling: Does It Belong in a Counselor Education Program?

Multicultural counseling has the support of various groups, including accreditation bodies. Counselor education programs may, however, be adopting a movement that is not consistent with previously held beliefs about counseling. Is information about a specific subculture helpful in counseling a client who is labeled as being from that subculture? Or are the differences within groups possibly as great as the differences between groups? The author's experience in one multicultural setting suggests that counseling is more effective with clients of another culture when it is unaided by the use of generalized information about that culture.