Counseling the Culturally Diverse. Laura Smith L.

Preface

      For over four decades, Counseling the Culturally Diverse: Theory and Practice (CCD) has been considered the “gold standard” in culturally competent mental health care. Its cutting‐edge presentation of multicultural counseling and therapy (MCT) is used in an overwhelming majority of graduate training programs in counseling and clinical psychology, and it has produced generations of culturally sensitive mental health practitioners. It now forms the multicultural knowledge base of licensing and certification exams at both the masters and the doctoral levels in psychology. In 2021, Social Science Space identified the book as one of the most important works across social science disciplines that has contributed to the ongoing need to understand, analyze, resist, and dismantle racism, bias, and bigotry. In essence, CCD has become a “classic” in the field of mental health practice, and leads the profession in the theory, research, and practice of MCT.

      CCD upholds the highest standards of scholarship, and is the most frequently cited source in multicultural psychology and mental health. The expert and global perspectives of the four co‐authors, each active researchers and practitioners in the field, strengthen the newly minted ninth edition of CCD. As a result, instructors will note the continued fresh, scholarly, and exciting perspective in the content of CCD, as it continues to rank as the most up‐to‐date text in the field.

      CHANGES TO CCD

      Much new research has been conducted on multicultural counseling, cultural competence, and social justice advocacy, alternative roles of helping professionals, White allyship, microaggression/microintervention theory, and culture‐specific interventions over the past few years. In essence, the topical areas covered in each chapter continue to anchor multicultural counseling coverage. As a result, while many chapters remain similar, each has undergone major revisions; some are quite extensive in the updating of references, introduction of new research and concepts, and discussion of future directions in counseling, therapy, and mental health.

      Additionally, in light of the current societal upheaval and political bias and bigotry directed toward marginalized groups in our nation, one of the lenses used to analyze mental health practice must be sociopolitical in nature. To avoid doing so or to discuss these concepts superficially are to continue the oppression and silencing of diverse populations. Thus, we have updated and in some cases expanded our coverage of how such factors influence the profession. Studying systems of oppression is a necessary step to cultural competence. We consider it a serious omission not to discuss counseling diverse populations without acknowledging and dissecting the issues of marginality, oppression, and the current sociopolitical climate on mental health practice.

      For example, the horrendous murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, and the historical and continuing killing of unarmed Black Americans, our nation has seemingly experienced a racial awakening of its racist historical past, and its continuing oppression, denigration, and silencing of Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC). Further, the COVID‐19 pandemic has laid bare the existence of systemic racism, and while it threatens the well‐being of humankind as a whole, it has most affected communities of color and poorer ones. Counseling and psychotherapy with marginalized group members do not occur in a vacuum. Issues of individual and systemic bias, prejudice and discrimination often rear their ugly heads in mental health practice. Being culturally competent requires practitioners to confront themselves as racial/cultural beings, to acknowledge the institutional biases of the mental health profession, and to change systems of oppression in our society.

EFFICIENT UP‐TO‐DATE COVERAGE

      We maintain our two‐part division of the book, with 11 separate chapters in Section 1: The Multiple Dimensions of Multicultural Counseling and Therapy, and 13 population‐specific chapters in Section 2: Multicultural Counseling and Specific Populations. We introduce Section 2 by providing a