Cross-Cultural Counseling Theory

Cross-cultural counseling theory assumes that all counseling interactions involve cultural and class factors and that a person’s worldview is affected by his or her belief systems, values, lifestyles, customs, traditions, and all other important identifiers that the person finds salient. Although all helping relationships are cross-cultural, some are more affected by differences in worldview, such as when a white counselor is working with a person of color. The focus on cross-cultural counseling dates back to the early part of the 20th century but began to become more prevalent in the late 1900s and into the current century. Sometimes called multicultural counseling or transcultural counseling, cross-cultural counseling has become an important focus of all counseling relationships today. While definitions of cross-cultural counseling vary, the major underpinning ...