This is a fantastic book which helps you understand a foreign culture in all its facets. It is extremely helpful and fun to read. A must for anybody who is interested in culture and communication.

As the profession of counseling moves forward, there is a growing need for theories to respond to the developing needs of our clientele. "A Theory of Multicultural Counseling and Therapy" (MCT) provides an excellent template for this process to begin. MCT is designed in such a way that it provides practitioners and practitioners-in-training the logical accumulation of years of research on counseling in a diverse society. This text moves counselors away from seeing people of differing cultures in a stereotypical manner toward a more theoretically integrative way of conceptualizing clients. The "common factors" approach used throughout the text focuses on shared characteristics from different schools of counseling and psychotherapy. MCT has arrived as the birth of a forward-looking counseling metatheory both responsive to past data as well as calling for research to challenge and modify it in the future. I strongly feel that all practicing psychologists and counselors should read MCT and that it should be included in the coursework of every trainee. Multicultural practice should no longer be considered a specialty, but instead should be seen as currently normative and the future of our field.

Through out the eara of the United States Racial segragation has been a part of culture. The story seedfolks tells the reader how people from every culture can come togther to show and make there common intrests. The book Seedfolks is about a comunity that has immagrants from all over the world. Some Spanish, some Chinese, some italian, and many more. One day a girl decides that she would impress her father in heaven by planting a small garden in a junk filled lot. Other people see the little girl. A man also decides that he would plant a garden of his own, but he is of another race. When other people see that two people of different races are planting gardens on the same land others come and plant gardens themselves. It was fun to read about all of the people merge togther to farm and plant as one race, the human race. After time the people get closer to ech other and realize that it really dosent matter what color there skin is but there personalities. This book gave me a different look to the way that I see other people. I has a way of touching you in a way that you may not have felt before. I strongly recamend it to Adults and children of all ages. You can certinally learn something from this book.

Seedfolks is takes place in a diverse community in Cleveland, Ohio. It is basically a story about a young Vietnamese girl that plants lima beans in a vacant lot filled with garbage to please her dead father. An older lady sees the girl through her window. Expecting that the girl is up to no good, she sends one of her friends out to investigate. The friend comes back and reports that the girl had only planted beans and that they wouldn't grow if he didn't help her take care of them. Other members of the community see that someone has removed all of the garbage from the lot and notice that someone was growing plants. Slowly, everyone begins to plant things in their own section of the garden. People begin to talk and get to know each other and help to transform the neighborhood.
One of the strengths of the story is the way each of the characters tells their own personal story but it all ties back to the garden. Even though there are many different characters, you never get thrown off track. This book is short and to the point with a good message. One of the weaknesses of the story is the way it ended. You find out that once winter comes, the garden looks run down and no one is really taking care of it; their owners have dug up most of the plants. You're kind of left wondering whether the garden is ever rejuvenated after spring returns.
I really enjoyed this book. I like the way this story is put together and the way each of the characters is of a different ethnicity. The fact that this book can be read in one day is also a plus. Seedfolks shows how one simple act can bring a community together. I would recommend this story to anyone who is looking for something positive to read.

The story begins in Cleveland Ohio, on a street called Gibb. Gibb St. was so diverse it was as though you put all the grains of sand on a beach and crammed them onto a pin head. Then, hope for this urban town comes in the form of a garden, and brings the community together, just because of six tiny lima beans. In the beginning of the book we find the neighborhood divided and separate. There's high crime, homelessness, disease, poverty. and pollution. The people live like rats in a dump, and often come and go. "It's like a cheap hotel, you leave as soon as you get enough money."- Ana Gibb street was polluted so bad, that it wasn't suitable for human inhabitation. Cleveland was a town for the immigrants, with no real industry, no hope, and no real future. But, then came a girl named Kim. One cold, musty day a girl named Kim planted six lima beans in a vacant lot filled with garbage, little did she know that those beans would become an inspiration for the community. After the seeds matured, people began to notice them among the garbage, and suddenly a glimmer of hope shone in their hearts. They all started planting their own seeds such as beans, lettuce, flowers, and tomatoes. Through the garden people began to take their dull tapestries of fate and make the colors brighter, and the patterns more intricate, and complicated. People began to work together yet, still some diversity remained. " First came the fences, then the "Keep Out" signs. And then finally the barbed wire, "Paradise" was turning back into Cleveland again." -Sam Although the diversity still remained, it was still a little better than Cleveland, little did these people know that when they started their gardens, they would forever cross their strings of fate. After the people of Gibb Street began to get over their diversity, they began to become friends. As their friendship bloomed, so did the lives of the people. They learned to love, care, and be friends once again. Some of the people who had fights with their fellow gardeners before to resolve their conflicts and realized they all had been blind. "I'm so sorry, I didn't know it was you then" - Polish Lady to Amir The garden gave people more faith and because of their faith people like Sae Young found their way out of their little microcosms, and came back to the land of the living. Others, like Marcella realized that their problems in life, might not be problems, but blessings in disguise. Because of the garden their was a renewal of faith, there for making the urban life for the characters in "Seedfolks" more decent. The garden made life worth living for everyone in Seedfolks. It made a impact with all people who came into contact with it. It shows that is we can all find something in common with each other, we can get past our pre justices, and all get along. During the beginning of the book the community was separated, and divided, then it began to come together in the middle, and in the end the community was much more than a community, but a family. And to think it started out in the form of six tiny lima beans... I really liked the pace of this book and found it interesting, and intricate. It kept you thiniking about everything that happenend. I found myself going "hmm, now why did the author put that in there?" when I read things going on in the story. I really liked this book and would reccomend it for anyone young, or old.