Counseling across and Beyond Cultures

'Counseling students typically get very little exposure to the theories of Clemont Vontress, a true pioneer of cross-cultural counseling. Counseling Across and Beyond Cultures provides a framework for critically analyzing Vontress's work, persuasively directing attention to topics that are typically ignored in the multicultural counseling literature-namely, spiritualism, death, and the importance of philosophy. The inclusion of interviews with Vontress himself adds life and feeling to this collection, which has the potential to become the bible for those looking to gain a mastery of his ideas.' -- J. Manuel Casas, Department of Counseling, Clinical, and School Psychology, University of California, Santa Barbara 'Counseling Across and Beyond Cultures provides an admirable introduction to the complete professional contributions made over a lifetime by Clemont Vontress, one of the founding figures of cross-cultural counseling. The essays included span a wide range of international and theoretical positions, and represent the contributions of a group of authors who form the "who's who" of the multicultural counseling field.' -- Colin Lago, independent Psychotherapist, Trainer, Consultant, and Supervisor

Using as a starting point the pioneering work of Clemmont E. Vontress, the contributors to Counseling Across and Beyond Cultures trace the evolution of multicultural counseling and discuss remaining challenges for practitioners.

Professional counseling is a dynamic field, necessarily changing to reflect shifting societal norms and client needs. In an increasingly multicultural and globalized society, there is a growing need for counselors to be sensitive to the diverse needs of clients expressing different cultural and ethnic beliefs and facets of racial, gender, sexual, age, ability, disability, or class identities.

Using as a starting point the pioneering work of Clemmont E. Vontress, the contributors to Counseling Across and Beyond Cultures trace the evolution of multicultural counseling and discuss remaining challenges for practitioners. Essays include a personal reflection by Vontress himself, critical analyses of the growth of multicultural counseling, considerations of his influence in Canada and the UK, and African and Caribbean perspectives on his work. Throughout, the importance of Vontress's accomplishments are celebrated, while critical analysis points the way towards further work to be done in the field.