Serving the Underserved

Abstract

Eliminating disparities in racial/ethnic mental health care is an ethical mandate and a tall order for the field of psychotherapy. There are significant obstacles that pose challenges, and at the same time point out directions for the field to address. This chapter provides arguments and narratives illustrating that increasing racial/ethnic parity requires all practicing psychotherapists and those in training to devote themselves to personal and professional multicultural identity/competence development, continuous knowledge renewal, and expansion and improvement of interventions in and outside of counseling rooms. Some of the possible and concrete paths toward meeting such demands are discussed to aid practitioners in their pursuit of the course of racial /ethnic mental health care parity.