Diverse goals for multicultural counselling and therapy

Proponents of multicultural counselling and therapy have emphasized the difficulties of cultural and racial minorities in relation to mainstream cultures. However, multicultural counselling and therapy is an even broader and more complex area than this. Prior to discussing therapeutic goals, this article draws on anthropology, to discuss the terminology of culture, and demography, to present population change statistics for Britain, Australia and the USA. Twelve goals for multicultural counselling and therapy are presented and discussed: reconciliation, support, coping with post-traumatic stress, assisting acculturation and assimilation, avoiding further marginalization, addressing racial and cultural discrimination, assisting clients to manage close cross-cultural relationships, assisting clients to manage intergenerational conflict, assisting long-stay transients and expatriates, assisting with gender role and equality issues, attaining higher levels of development, and the good society. As the world gets more interconnected, addressing each of these areas of multicultural counselling and therapy is going to become increasingly important.