Counselor Education & Supervision • March 2019 • Volume 58 33 © 2019 by the American Counseling Association. All rights reserved. Counselor Preparation Received 06/01/17 Revised 05/10/18 Accepted 06/15/18 DOI: 10.1002/ceas.12122 Multicultural Training Resistances: Critical Incidents for Students of Color Derek X. Seward Thirty-two master’s students of color reported critical incidents of multicultural learning resistances. Qualitative findings suggest that students attributed resis- tances to limited program diversity and attention to cultural dynamics. Quantita- tive analyses indicate a racial difference in how students’ perceptions of peers influenced resistances. Recommendations include increasing educator cultural dialogue facilitation skills. Keywords: students of color, multicultural training, resistance, counselor educa- tion, critical incident technique Multicultural training is essential for counseling students to acquire neces- sary competencies to work with diverse clientele. Historically, many coun- seling programs have designed their training curriculum to help students develop multicultural competencies in accordance with Sue, Arredondo, and McDavis’s (1992) tripartite model of cultural competence (Rogers & O’Bryon, 2014). Within the tripartite model, students are expected to gain awareness of their personal assumptions and biases, learn about histories and beliefs of diverse cultural groups, and acquire appropriate interven- tion strategies and techniques to be used in counseling (Sue et al., 1992). In 2015, the American Counseling Association endorsed the Multicultural and Social Justice Counseling Competencies (MSJCC; Ratts, Singh, Nassar- McMillan, Butler, & McCullough, 2015), which revised the tripartite model of multicultural competencies (Sue et al., 1992), signaling an expectation these newer competencies will be integrated into counseling training, re- search, and practice. According to the MSJCC (Ratts et al., 2015), students are also expected to develop an awareness of dynamics of power, privilege, and oppression that influence the counseling relationship; consider client issues within a cultural context; and possess strategies to intervene with and for clients at individual and systemic levels. The multicultural training process can be emotionally challenging for students as educators push them to examine difficult, sometimes controver- sial subject matter (Pieterse, Lee, & Fetzer, 2016). Counseling students can display resistances to multicultural training that interfere with acquisition of Derek X. Seward, Counseling and Human Services, Syracuse University. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Derek X. Seward, Counseling and Human Services, Syracuse University, 130 College Place, Sims Hall, Suite 440, Syracuse, NY 13244 (email: dxseward@syr.edu).