This chapter offers practical utility to help expand rehabilitation counselors’ (RCs) and other mental health professionals’ thinking about the various considerations that underlie a culturally competent social justice approach to rehabilitation counseling practice. Rehabilitation counseling has demonstrated its commitment to the importance of cultural competency in improving the quality and availability of counseling and rehabilitation services to clients from traditionally under represented racial/ethnic groups. The chapter describes the multicultural and social justice counseling competencies (MSJCC), with particular attention directed to the social justice framework and how it may be used to assist in working toward equity in the context of changing demographics in American society. It then explains how individual and group racial, sexual identity, cultural, and identity development may impact the counseling process. The counseling literature recognizes LGBTQ individuals as inclusive under the umbrella of multicultural populations, as well as intersecting with other groups because of multiple identities.

This chapter serves as the foundation for exploration of the definition, history, framework, nature, and significance of interdisciplinary practice in counseling and human services to improve outcomes for clients. It discusses the concept of “interdisciplinary” and “disciplinary foundations” to construct interdisciplinary linkages. The chapter explores common core characteristics of human services practice across the disciplines of counseling, rehabilitation counseling, social work, psychology, and allied health. It presents the information (a) roles and functions, (b) values and ideas, (c) cultural competence, and (d) knowledge, skills, and competence in the shared areas of human growth and development, clinical assessment and evaluation, goals development and implementation, application of interventions and evidence-based practices, and ethics. It also identifies the strategies for establishing interdisciplinary collaboration across various human services, health, and behavioral disciplines. Finally, the chapter examines the challenges and benefits of interdisciplinary practice within human services practice.