Dimensions of Multicultural Counseling

A Life Story Approach

Culture and Identity in Multicultural Counseling is a proposal to expand a T2 into a T1. This book is a collection of life stories of various individuals from different races, ethnic groups, religions, and social classes and the authors highlight important areas in the individuals' lives that had an impact on the formation of their cultural identity. The authors then analyze each story drawing out clinical applications for counselors and highlighting various techniques and interventions that are helpful with each individual. As the authors have promoted their current book, they have encountered instructors that have used it and have requested that the book be expanded to include the relevant theoretical material so it can be used as a main text. Their initial idea was to create a supplemental reader to go along with the current version, but we talked them into expanding it so it can be sold as a stand-alone textbook. The key advantage of using this text over its primary competitor would be that the book brings the course to life by using actual people as models with which to learn effective multicultural counseling.  In addition, the authors have developed a DVD that goes along with the book and would like to include it in the instructor's resource materials. The DVD would give us a major advantage over the competing text as it will demonstrate the counseling process in action with some of the individuals analyzed in the book.