The current retrospective study examined whether clients' (N ϭ 176) perceptions of their psychotherapists' multicultural orientation (MCO) were associated with their psychological functioning, working alliance, and real relationship scores. Moreover, we tested whether clients' perceptions of the working alliance and the real relationship mediated the relationship between clients' perceptions of their psychotherapists' MCO and psychological functioning. The results showed that clients' perceptions of their psychotherapists' MCO were positively related to working alliance, real relationship, and psychological functioning. Only clients' ratings of the working alliance mediated the relationship between clients' perceptions of their psychotherapists' MCO and psychological functioning. Thus, because clients perceive their psychotherapists as being more oriented toward cultural issues, they may view the therapist as being more credible and may gain a sense of comfort in the therapeutic process. In turn, clients' strong alliance facilitates improvement in psychological well-being.

This study examined therapist differences in their clients' ratings of their therapists' multicultural competencies (MCCs) as well as tested whether therapists' who were rated as exhibiting more MCCs also had clients who had better therapy outcomes (N = 143 clients and 31 therapists). All clients completed at least 3 sessions. Results demonstrated that therapists accounted for less than 1% of the variance in their clients' Cross-Cultural Counseling Inventory–Revised (CCCI-R; T. D. LaFromboise, H. L. K. Coleman, & A. Hernandez, 1991) scores, suggesting that therapists did not differ in terms of how clients rated their MCCs. Therapists accounted for approximately 8.5% of the variance in therapy outcomes. For each therapist, their clients' CCCI-R scores were aggregated to provide an estimate of therapists' MCCs. Therapists' MCCs, based on aggregate CCCI-R scores, did not account for the variability in therapy outcomes that were attributed to them. Additionally, clients' race/ethnicity, therapists' race/ethnicity, or the interaction of clients'–therapists' race/ethnicity were not significantly associated with clients' perceptions of their therapists' MCCs.

Client perceptions of their therapists' cultural humility have been associated with positive therapy outcomes; however, it is unclear whether these positive effects are consistent across clients. In particular, this study examines the extent to which clients' religious commitment moderates the association between their perceptions of their therapists' cultural humility and therapy outcomes. The sample included 45 clients, all of whom identified their religion/spirituality as the most salient aspect to their cultural identity. The results demonstrated that perceptions of cultural humility were positively associated with therapy outcomes. However, this effect was moderated by clients' religious commitment. The relationship between perceived cultural humility and outcomes was positive for clients with higher religious commitment, whereas it was not different from zero for clients with lower religious commitment. Implications for research, theory, and practice are offered.