Welcome

Greetings to all and thank you for your interest in NJAMC!

The New Jersey Association for Multicultural Counseling (NJAMC) is a membership organization and division of NJCA. Our membership includes counseling professionals, licensed professional counselors and student counselors interested in furthering efforts towards inclusion and the development of cultural competence within our profession. NJAMC currently operates under the budgetary support of NJCA, in combination with support raised through donations, professional membership fees, and funds raised by the annual NJAMC conference.

We also advocate for the development of culturally competent mental healthcare services in New Jersey, and define multiculturalism and diversity as inclusive of the following:

• The fixed, less changeable characteristics we are born into or with, such as ethnicity, race, gender, sexual orientation, disability and social class.

• Our age, including our personal history and the historical moments and eras we have experienced within the context of our society.

• The multiple factors that surround and affect us, such as our family relationships, educational opportunities, religion, and citizenship.

We believe that the competence of multicultural counselors, organizations, and human beings is based on the ability to integrate multicultural and culture specific awareness, knowledge and skills into counseling interactions, organizational interactions and human interactions (Adapted from Arredondo, P. et al. (1996). Operationalization of the Multicultural Counseling Competencies).

It is my sincere hope that you will join us in pursuing our mission! Please feel free to join us at our monthly meetings or to contact me at shyamli.shah@njamc.org for additional information about our division, our efforts and the benefits of membership! Respectfully,

Shyamli Shah
Acting President