Orientacion Intercultural

Present & Future Challenges
A 40-Year Review of Multicultural
Counseling Outcome Research:
Outlining a Future Research Agenda for
the Multicultural Counseling Movement
Michael D’Andrea and Elizabeth Foster Heckman
This study represents a 40-year review of multicultural counseling outcome research that has been done in the
mental health professions. Particular attention is directed to theoutcomes that ensue from counseling situations
that are composed of counselors and clients from different racial/cultural backgrounds and identities in individual,
group, and family counseling settings. Recommendations are presented for the next decade of multicultural counseling outcome research.The multicultural counseling movement is clearly transforming the thinking and practices of many counselor educators, 
practitioners, researchers, and students in training. As several 
authors have noted in this special issue, the evolution of this 
movement  has  been  characterized  by  numerous  challenges 
that have moved the multicultural counseling paradigm from 
its infancy to a more mature stage in its development (Arredondo, Tovar-Blank, & Parham, 2008).
After  almost  40  years  of  scholarly  work, multicultural 
theorists have greatly extended counselors’ thinking about the 
impact that racial/ethnic/cultural factors have on counseling 
endeavors aimed at stimulating healthy human development. 
What follows is a brief overview of some of the key ways 
that these theorists have extended the epistemological base that 
counselors use to think about and implement helping strategies in racially and culturally diverse settings.
First, one of the most significant and fundamental ways 
that the multicultural counseling movement has affected and 
continues to affect the counseling profession is by describing 
the between-groups differences that are commonly manifested 
among persons in diverse racial/ethnic/cultural groups. These 
differences  include  the  ways  that  people  in diverse  groups 
construct meaning of such concepts as human development, 
mental health, psychological maturity, and appropriate psychological  helping  interventions  (Ivey,  D’Andrea,  Ivey,  & 
Simek-Morgan, 2007; D. W. Sue & Sue, 2003). By drawing 
from culturally different cosmological perspectives, multicultural counseling theorists have enabled counselors to broaden their understanding of these and related concepts in ways that 

extend far beyond the culturally encapsulated constructions 
of such concepts that have dominated the profession in the 
past (Wrenn, 1962, 1985). 
Second, in addition to illuminating these between-groups differences, multicultural counseling theorists have described the within-group psychological differences that are routinely manifested among persons in the same racial/cultural groups as well. 
Advancements in racial/cultural identity development theories 
greatly enhanced counselors’ understanding of the different ways 
individuals in the same groups develop psychologically (Cross, 
1971, 1991; Helms, 1990, 1995; D. W. Sue & Sue, 2003). 
Third, counselors’ knowledge of both between-group and within-group differences has been aided further by the introduction of additional theoretical models that highlight the multidimensionality of human development. This advancement is 
reflected in the development of the  Dimensions of Personal 
Identity model (Arredondo & Glauner, 1992; Arredondo et al., 
2008) and the RESPECTFUL (R = religious/spiritual issues, 
E  =  economic  class  issues,  S  =  sexual  identity  issues,  P  = psychological developmental issues, E = ethnic/racial identity 
issues, C = chronological issues, T = trauma and threats to 
well-being,  F  =  family  issues,  U  =  unique  physical  issues, 
L  =  language  and  location  of  residence  issues)  counseling 
framework (D’Andrea & Daniels, 2001). 
A  final  major  theoretical  contribution  relates  to ...