Abstract
Multiculturalism in psychology emphasises the recognition of racial and ethnic identities, cultural values and the perspectives of both practitioners and clients. This approach promotes fairness and cultural relevance in counselling. While cultural adaptation frameworks offer practical solutions for diverse groups, their implementation is inconsistent. Technology-based counselling shows promise in reducing symptoms but raises concerns about safety, bias, accountability and over-reliance, especially among young people. This paper aims to examine technology-based counselling services through a multicultural lens. It addresses cultural and structural factors and provides recommendations for equitable practice, design and research in mental healthcare. The paper follows PRISMA (2020) guidelines. Data were gathered primarily from journals indexed and abstracted in SCOPUS, PubMed, Web of Science, PsycINFO and DOAJ. Thirty-eight full-text articles from 2000 to 2025 that used telephone, email, chat, videoconferencing and web-based counselling for mental health concerns were included. Themes from a multicultural perspective reveal how digital interventions can worsen existing inequalities in terms of unequal access to technology, language barriers, under-representation of minority groups in research, data privacy and surveillance concerns and culturally inappropriate content. In conclusion, the study urges counsellors to consider the complex psycho-sociocultural context and the intersectionality of clients’ identities, especially when working online with diverse individuals.
Keywords: Inequality, Mental Healthcare, Multicultural and Social Justice Competence, Service Gap, Technologybased Counselling.