African American culture is rich with religious and spiritual traditions and practices that largely have been ignored in traditional approaches to counseling with this population. The purpose of this article is to describe the religious and spiritualdimensions of African Americanculture and to offer strategies for incorporating them into counseling African Americanclients.
Multicultural counseling models have limitations in synthesizing multiple cultural variables such as race, gender, class, and sexual orientation. The author describes 3 multicultural models-Afrocentric, feminist, and "womanist"-and their application to psychotherapy with African American women. Using a case illustration of an African American lesbian client, the author offers strategies for assisting clients to integrate multiple cultural identities.
Narrative therapy attempts to examine and use the meanings and consequences that are the foundation of the stories and experiences clients bring to therapy. In this article, the authors review narrative therapy, including a description of key narrative techniques, and its application to multicultural counseling.Pamela Lucey Semmler is a master's student, and Carmen B r m Williams is an assistant professor; both i n counseling psychology and counselor educatiDn at the University of Colorado at Denuer. Correspondence regarding this article should be sent to Carmen
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