What is Intersectional Theory

For the past three decades, researchers who focus on multicultural issues in counseling and psychology have highlighted the impending shift in the population of the United States. Rehabilitation counseling literature has also highlighted the growing population of people of color and, more specifically, those individuals who identify both as people of color and individuals with disabilities. Ongoing challenges with access, utilization, and successful outcomes for individuals with multiple identities have illustrated the complexity in addressing diversity broadly but have also highlighted the need to broaden the focus of multicultural work to examine the intersections of the various identities and lived experiences encountered in practice. This chapter will review the history of multicultural counseling research, teaching, and clinical practice in the discipline and will promote movement toward a more action-oriented paradigm focused on an anti-racist/anti-oppression framework and will provide tools for enhanced training in pedagogy and training for educators and practitioners.