Cross-cultural contact in counseling training

Cross-cultural contact was found to be important in the development of mult icultural counseling competencies (MCCs). The greater the prior crosscultur al life experience, the higher were students' MCCs measured at the beginnin g of a multicultural counseling course. MCCs measured at the end of the cou rse were significantly higher than MCCs measured at the beginning of the co urse. Theme analysis of students' journals suggested that cross-cultural co ntact, a major component of the course, was important in MCCs's development .