White Racial Identity Development and Cross-Cultural Counselor Training

Abstract

This article integrates the work of cross-cultural counselor-training development theorists (Carney & Kahn, 1984; Rowe, 1989), racial-identity development specialists (e.g., Helms, 1984), and cross-cultural counseling competency experts (e.g., Sue et al, 1982) in the formation of a comprehensive multicultural training model for majority-group (White, middle-class) counselors. Past developmental models are criticized for their failure to consider the White counselor's racial-identity (or consciousness) development as an integral component of multicultural training. The article reviews and integrates extant stage models of White racial consciousness, describes how counselors progress through variousstages, and specifically presents training regimens to facilitate counselors' sequential movement through the model. The article concludes with specific research antd policy recommendations.