The effect of subtle death reminders (mortality salience) on multicultural counseling competence (MCC) was examined using a quasi-experimental design. One hundred forty-one counseling students were recruited and randomly assigned to an experimental or control group. Results of a one-way analysis of variance indicated that counseling students in the experimental group (the group exposed to subtle death reminders prior to rating their MCC), self-rated their MCC lower than did participants in the control group. Implications and limitations of these findings are explored. (Contains 3 tables.)