MULTICULTURAL COUNSELING: COUNSELING LATINOS AND PUERTO RICANS:
The purpose of this paper is to provide a broad overview of multicultural counseling as it applies to the counseling of Latinos in general and Puerto Ricans in particular. The review begins with a definition of multicultural counseling and a brief historical review of the development of the multicultural approach.
This discussion is followed by an examination of the cultural characteristics of Latinos and Puerto Ricans. Research illustrating counseling intervention with Puerto Ricans and Latinos is then reviewed in an effort to demonstrate current multicultural counseling practices used for these populations. The review ends with an examination of the directions multicultural counseling for Hispanics might take in the future.
Multicultural Counseling: Definition and Historical Overview
Peterson and Nisenholz (1994) have noted that the United States is a culturally pluralistic society which is to say that it is a society where individual ethnic/racial groups often maintain their own cultural uniqueness even though they share many common elements of the dominant American culture. According to the authors, multicultural counseling refers to the delivery of counseling services provided within the context of appreciation for the variety of racial/ethnic/cultural groups in United States society, their similarities and differences, and the contributions that each group makes to the society.
An important element of the definition of multicultural counseling is the notion of those behaviors and modes of counseling that characterize the culture-sensitive counselor. In this regard, Ponterotto and Pedersen (1993) report that multicultural counselors or counselors who are culture-sensitive are those who are aware of the history of prejudice and racism in the United States and understand how these attitudes have been ingrained in America, including in the training...