Training programs committed to the development of culturally competent family therapists must discover ways to raise cultural awareness and increase cultural sensitivity. While awareness involves gaining knowledge of various cultural groups, sensitivity involves having experiences that challenge individuals to explore their personal cultural issues. This article outlines how the cultural genogram can be used as an effective training tool to promote both cultural awareness and sensitivity.

As society becomes more racially, ethnically, and culturally diverse, therapists' training needs to become broader in order to incorporate greater cultural sensitivity into practice. Educational programs must create a cultural milieu that challenges students to explore the complexities of race, ethnicity, and culture. The authors analyze training-program culture in terms of curriculum, structural composition, and the clinical components of practice. Suggestions for how the culture of programs can be reshaped are offered.

Race and racism have a profound effect on our daily lives and the practice of family therapy. Whether individual or institutional level, overt or covert, intentional or unintentional, there are a variety of ways in which racism can infiltrate the therapeutic process. Before therapists can take steps to address racism effectively within the context of family therapy, it is important to attend to the development of their racial awareness and racial sensitivity. These provide the critical foundation upon which specific skills and strategies associated with effectively identifying and responding to racism in therapy are based. This article defines racial awareness and sensitivity and provides suggestions for enhancing both. In the section that follows, three major ways in which racism can infiltrate the therapeutic process are described. Skills and strategies for addressing each of these in family therapy are presented.

No abstract

This paper reports on a 10‐year replication of Everett's (1980) survey of Approved Supervisors of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT). Significant differences were found between today's supervisors and supervision, including an increase in female supervisors, a shift toward a systemic theoretical orientation, greater concentration of supervisors in formal training settings, a great increase in the use of video recordings, a decline in the popularity of personal psychotherapy as part of training, a greater inclination of supervisors to identify themselves as Marital and Family Therapists (MFTs) regardless of original education, and others. The Approved Supervisor system appears to be fulfilling AAMFT organizational goals; other results will be reported elsewhere.