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Pedersen, P. B., Draguns, J. G., Lonner, W. J., & Trimble, J. E. (Eds.) (2008). Counseling across cultures (6th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. ISBN 978-1-4129-2739-0 (softcover), 462 pages.
Counseling Across Cultures is a comprehensive and sophisticated guide for applying a culturally diverse perspective to counselling psychology. This edited volume's goal is to provide both breadth and depth on cultural diversity in order to increase practitioners' awareness and knowledge of the role of culture and ethnicity in psychotherapy and the use of culturally sensitive interventions. The rich content of this text reflects the many years that editors Paul Pedersen, Juris Draguns, Walter Lonner, and Joseph Trimble have spent in the field of ethnic and cultural psychology as researchers, practitioners, educators, visiting scholars, and world travellers. This substantial text is organized into five parts, addressing both common and specific issues in cross-cultural counselling, including competencies and gender issues in multicultural counselling.
The 24 chapters range from 14 to 22 pages in length except for the shorter introductory chapter, which highlights the applicability and utility of a culture-centred perspective in counselling psychology. Chapters 1 to 5 (Part I) provide a foundation for the remainder of the book. They examine benefits of a multicultural perspective, professional ethics and issues, individual and group differences, and assessment strategies in multicultural contexts. In these chapters, emphasis is placed on demonstrating professional excellence in counselling through assessing the psychotherapy process, accommodating cultural practices and services in psychotherapy (e.g., rituals, translators), advocating for ethnic minority clients as needed, and bridging cross-counselling research and practice. The reader is shown how ethnicity and culture may shape a client's unique worldview and sense of self and group identity.
Chapters 6 to 10 (Part II) explore the interface of counselling and ethnocultural contexts. They examine...