Cultural responsiveness in counselling and psychology: An introduction

Abstract

The Introduction chapter describes relevant concepts related to developing multicultural perspectives and responsiveness in counselling and psychology. This includes a brief review of how the impact of settler colonialism, postcolonialism, the cycle of socialisation, discrimination and bias are embedded social justice issues and how decolonisation, intersectionality, the counselling relationship and counsellor self-awareness can create transformative multicultural counselling and psychology practices. It is beyond the scope of this chapter to provide a comprehensive review of each of these areas; however, it will provide the central ideas of each of these concepts.