Association for Multicultural Counseling and Development

The Association for Multicultural Counseling and Development (AMCD), a division of the American Counseling Association (ACA), “seeks to develop programs specifically to improve ethnic and racial empathy and understanding,” as noted on its website. AMCD’s activities are aimed at ensuring that members from diverse cultural backgrounds are provided opportunities to increase their education and allow for personal growth. AMCD is autonomous in the conduct of its affairs yet is organized and operated at all times in compliance with the by-laws and policies of ACA applicable to divisions and members.

The mission of AMCD is multifaceted and, as indicated on its website, is as follows:

• Recognize the human diversity and multicultural nature of our society;
• To enhance the development, human rights, and the psychological health of ethnic/racial populations and all people as critical to the social, educational, political, professional, and personal reform in the United States and globally;
• To identify and work to eliminate conditions that create barriers to the individual development of marginalized populations;
• [Page 108]To develop, implement, and/or foster interest in charitable, scientific, and educational programs designed to further the interests of marginalized populations;
• To secure equality and access of treatment, advancement, qualifications, and status of individuals and families in counseling, wellness, and mental health work;
• To publish a journal and other scientific-educational and professional materials with the purpose of raising the standards of all who work in providing counseling, wellness, and mental health.

To understand AMCD today, it is important to understand AMCD’s history. Previously, AMCD was known as the Association for Non-White Concerns (ANWC) in Personnel and Guidance, a division of the American Personnel and Guidance Association (APGA), which is now known as the American Counseling Association, and was founded in 1972. In 1985, ANWC made the change to its name and became the AMCD to more accurately reflect the efforts of the association that also included changes to its organizational structure and mission. The journey to becoming a division of APGA began in the late 1960s. It was spearheaded under the leadership of founder Samuel H. Johnson. Through Johnson’s efforts as well as the efforts of other presidents who followed him, ANWC became one of the most recognized organizations for people of color and other disenfranchised helping professionals and opened the door to multiculturalism becoming the fourth force in counseling. AMCD was founded in the spirit of these leaders whose vision paved the way for people of color to be embraced as viable leaders within the ranks of ACA as well as paved the way for AMCD to focus its attention on the most pressing issues of our time.

AMCD is probably best known for the operationalization of the Multicultural Counseling Competencies (MCC) and the Multicultural and Social Justice Counseling Competencies (MSJCC) that represents a benchmark for the counseling profession and the ACA. In April 1991, under the presidency of Thomas Parham, AMCD proposed and approved 31 multicultural competencies and standards that outline the need and rationale for a multicultural perspective in counseling. The call to the profession to adopt these MCC and standards were published in 1992 simultaneously in ACA’s Journal of Counseling and Development and in the Journal of the Association for Multicultural Counseling and Development. This document encouraged the ACA (then known as the American Association for Counseling and Development [AACD]) and the counseling profession to adopt these competencies and standards that include multicultural awareness, knowledge, and skills in accreditation criteria, curriculum reform, research, counseling theories, and the training of helping professionals. These cross-cultural counseling competencies transformed the counseling profession and provided a foundation for working effectively with racially diverse clients in a variety of counseling settings.

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