What Is Multicultural Counseling?

By Julia Salerno, MS, LAC

Individuals from all walks of life and diverse backgrounds can experience difficulties leading them to seek out therapeutic services. While there are a number of differing therapeutic modalities, many traditional forms of therapy may not be effective at serving the experiences of minority groups. Providing effective therapeutic treatment for individuals from different cultural backgrounds is essential, which is why many therapists are striving to work from a multicultural lens. 

So, what is multicultural counseling? And why is it important? 

Multicultural counseling is a term used to describe a type of counseling practice that acknowledges how a client’s cultural identity may have played a role in their mental health. When a therapist works from a multicultural approach, it means that a therapist will not only work to understand the difficulties you are experiencing from your perspective but work to acknowledge how various parts of your cultural identity have also played a role in your mental health.

At its heart, multicultural counselings means that the therapist will appreciate who you are as an individual and your background, which includes your:

• Racial

• Ethnic 

• Cultural

• Sexual orientation

• Age 

• Spiritual

• Gender and gender identity

• Socioeconomic background

• Disability

Counselors working from a multicultural background understand that these components have not only influenced your identity and life experiences, but they are the components of who you are at your core. Which are components that we want to embrace fully and truly in the therapeutic space!

Being able to hold space for these diverse aspects of an individual is vital. We live in a diverse society that is only expected to continue to grow over the coming decades! Which means that more and more individuals from differing backgrounds are going to seek out therapeutic spaces. Multicultural counseling is about taking space to acknowledge and appreciate that individuals are not all the same! We each have our own personal background, whether it be our ethnicity, race, spiritual or sexual context—it is important component of who we are which is why it is essential to be incorporated in therapeutic treatment.

Are you looking for a multicultural therapist? Contact us today to speak with anyone of our therapists that have availability!