How should counselors broach topics of race, ethnicity, and culture?

It’s incumbent upon counselors to initiate or respond to clients’ concerns about racial, ethnic, and cultural issues, but guidelines lack specific instructions. An article published in the


Journal of Counseling & Development


provides counselors with strategies for broaching and discussing topics of race, ethnicity, and culture with clients.

The article describes a model for broaching these issues and explains a series of steps–joining, assessment, preparation, and delivery–involved in using it.

“This and other articles serve as the foundation for the next phase in our research on counselor implementation of broaching and its impact on client mental health outcomes,” the authors wrote.

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