The Counseling Psychologist

The construct of multicultural competence has gained much currency in the counseling psychology literature. This article provides a critique of the multicultural counseling competencies and argues that counseling psychology's operationalization of multicultural competence must be grounded in a commitment to social justice. Such a commitment necessitates an expansion of our professional activities beyond counseling and psychotherapy. While counseling is one way to provide services to clients from oppressed groups, it is limited in its ability to foster social change. Engaging in advocacy, prevention, and outreach is critical to social justice efforts, as is grounding teaching and research in collaborative and social action processes.

Several fields within psychology, including counseling psychology, are struggling to promote a social justice agenda. Most efforts concentrate on a critique of existing values, assumptions, and practices. Whereas the level of critique is quite sophisticated, the level of social justice practice is rather embryonic. Critical psychologists have been constructing alternative practices that strive to go beyond the status quo and its critique. This article proposes an agenda for action that is conductive to wellness and liberation at the same time. The authors recommend several steps for advancing such an agenda. They argue that critical psychologists need to promote synergy between and among (a) diverse values, (b) wellness and liberation, and (c) existing critiques within psychology and other fields. To illustrate practical application, the authors discuss these recommendations in the context of people with physical disabilities.

Social justice and multicultural competence have been inextricably linked for nearly four decades, influencing the development of multicultural competency standards and guidelines and organizational change in psychology. This response provides a historical perspective on the evolution of competencies and offers clarifications regarding their scope, actual counselor behavior, relationship to case conceptualization, and political implications. Advocacy strategies of social justice leaders such as César Chávez, Martin Luther King Jr., and Rosa Parks are highlighted and recommended for incorporation in a counseling psychology social justice agenda.

Counseling psychology has a long history of interest and commitment to social justice and multicultural issues. This article discusses some of that history and, in addition, speaks to specifics of implementing a liberation psychology frame of reference into clinical practice along with the issues of implementation and challenges faced by those of a social justice orientation. The authors support the position of Vera and Speight (2003 [this issue]) but point to (a) the need to avoid ahistoricism as practitioners work with social justice and (b) the need for awareness that the multicultural competencies themselves represent a major social justice organizational intervention.

Elizabeth M. Vera and Suzette L. Speight (2003 [this issue]) challenge counseling psychologists to sharpen the field's response to social justice. This challenge is part of a broader effort by critical psychologists who believe that mainstream psychology's values, assumptions, and practices reinforce an unjust status quo. Despite persistent resistance to calls for change, the critical agenda can aid practitioners who seek both to help their diverse clients and to try to transform psychology rather than abandon it for settings more conducive to justice-enhancing work.

Vera and Speight's (2003 [this issue]) use of the current Multicultural Competencies (Sue et al., 1998) to criticize all multicultural cultural social justice interventions may be unfair. The author offers some perspectives on shifting the focus of counseling psychology to marginalized groups but advises that minority status and economic realities may impede the shift.

A new class of medications, protease inhibitors, has dramatically improved the health of many people with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). This development has had a major impact on the lives of those affected by HIV/AIDS. This article considers how a group is affected by the larger systems of which it is a part. The article examines changes in the content, process, and salient leadership tasks of an ongoing therapy group for people with HIV and AIDS before and following the initial introduction of new medical treatments. It also considers how the group process continues to be affected by the more recent failure of these medications for many patients. Implications for research, practice, and training are discussed.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among Asian American adherence to Asian cultural values, attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help, and willingness to see a counselor. Based on the data from 242 Asian American college students, the results revealed that adherence to Asian cultural values inversely predicted both attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help and general willingness to see a counselor, above and beyond the effects of related demographic variables. The results also indicated that attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help were a perfect mediator on the relationship between adherence to Asian cultural values and willingness to see a counselor in general and between adherence to Asian values and willingness to see a counselor for personal and health problems in particular.

The author reviews the Hill cognitive-experiential model for working with dreams. This model involves three stages: exploration, insight, and action. She then reviews the empirical studies that have been conducted on this model. Results indicate that dream work is effective, particularly in terms of session evaluation and increased insight into the target dream. It appears that client involvement, therapist empathy and input, and all the components of the model are contributors to the outcome of dream sessions.