"This book may well become a classic. Murphy-Shigematsu's case studies read like stories and are full of compelling insights regarding the art of therapy."
—Gene I. Awakuni, Vice Provost for Student Affairs, Stanford University

This volume uses fascinating therapeutic encounters to help clinicians understand and respond to the needs of their increasingly diverse clientele. Emphasizing the importance of balancing general cultural awareness with a consciousness of openness and curiosity, Murphy-Shigematsu urges clinicians to look beyond their assumptions and stereotypes to learn the client’s cultures through eliciting key narratives. Keeping the client and therapist center stage, the author shows the complex ways in which their cultural self-narratives interact.

Capturing the intimate and exciting nature of the therapeutic session, this unique volume:

• Considers multicultural counseling as a consciousness that guides all therapy, rather than a set of skills or stereotypes.
• Integrates a constructivist, narrative approach into multicultural counseling.
• Teaches about culture through its manifestations in the particulars of individual lives–both that of the client and counselor.
• Provides a balance to approaches that either deny culture’s importance or over-emphasize generalizations and stereotypes.
• Describes openly the nature of the learning that occurs for the therapist.