Potentially Harmful Therapy and Multicultural Counseling: Bridging Two Disciplinary Discourses

The authors provide an overview of the definitions and applications of potentially harmful therapy and review the dialogue around the multicultural counseling and psychotherapy movement. The authors aim to bridge the discourse between the two areas and provide insight which helps explain why the discourse around Potentially Harmful Therapy (PHT) has not traditionally included a focus on multicultural psychotherapy. By framing the dialogue around other contexts, the authors provide new assumptions about sources, objects and the scope of harm and then further recommend how harm should be conceptualized and linked to a broader social justice agenda.

• Define Potentially Harmful Therapy (PHT) and the PHT literature reviewed.
• Identify the underpinnings of the multicultural counseling and psychotherapy movement (MCP).
• Describe the discourse around PHT and MCP.
• Discuss the recommendations to bridge the gap between the PHT and MCP dialogues.

• Dennis C. Wendt, MS, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich.
• Joseph P. Gone, PhD, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich.
• Donna K. Nagata, PhD. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich.

This Continuing Education program is in partnership with the Div. 17 (Society of Counseling Psychology).

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