How MFTs of Color Develop Their Multicultural Counseling Competencies

The training programs in marriage and family therapy have received criticism for providing multicultural counseling to diverse populations from White and Western perspectives. Training programs provide less focus on the training needs around cultural competency and cultural humility for students of color. This research study is a phenomenological approach to understand the experiences of students of color in their MFT training programs and during their early clinical experiences, as they developed their multicultural counseling competencies. After interviewing eight participants about their lived experience, data was analyzed via a thematic analysis and resulted in identifying three themes. (1) There are specific multicultural counseling skills that participants frequently use (2) Learning in a White environment means learning without adequate representation, without diverse content and research, and without discussions focusing on diversity. (3) MFT programs need to incorporate a more diverse training approach including increased diversity in its faculty, literature, and general content.