Building Multicultural Competency: Development, Training and Practice

Currently, the mental health workforce is neither trained nor staffed in a way that appropriately addresses the essential needs of the growing multicultural population. This must change. The 21st century requires an innovative paradigm in multicultural psychology in order to improve the standard for mental health professionals.

Building Multicultural Competency answers this need by providing a new Multiracial/Multiethnic/Multicultural Competency Building Model-a model that, in great detail, provides relevant solutions to this growing problem. This book will supply individuals, students, professionals, educators, and administrators who are involved in the field of psychology with a map on how to build the multicultural competency skills that will allow them to function cross-culturally. The resolutions are personally enriching, helpful to diverse peoples, and influential to other individuals, groups, and institutions.

Joseph L. White, PhD, is professor emeritus of psychology and psychiatry at the University of California, Irvine, where he spent most of his career as a teacher, supervising psychologist, mentor, and director of ethnic studies and cross-cultural programs.

Sheila J. Henderson, MBA, Ph.D., is associate director for I-MERIT (International and Multicultural Education Research Intervention and Training) and visiting associate professor in the California School of Professional Psychology, both at Alliant International University. She is also a Hans Sauer Research Fellow at the University of Humboldt, Berlin, Germany, an editorial board member for the Journal of Career Development, and a California licensed counseling psychologist in San Francisco.