Multicultural Competence, Social Justice, and Counseling Psychology: Expanding Our Roles

TL;DR: The authors argues that counseling psychology's operationalization of multicultural competence must be grounded in a commitment to social justice, and that such a commitment necessitates an expansion of professional activities beyond counseling and psychotherapy.

Abstract: 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.