Development of culturally sensitive psychotherapists.

Abstract

We propose a developmental model to describe how student-therapists learn to appropriately consider cultural factors in their clinical work with culturally diverse clients. The model is derived from discussions held in a seminar concerning mental health services and culture and from students' written accounts of how they considered cultural factors in providing therapy. Vignettes based on the written accounts are presented to illustrate the key developmental processes hypothesized to underlie psychotherapists' growing cultural sensitivity. The proposed model is contrasted with past models of therapist development. A research agenda guided by a social cognitive perspective is offered to test the proposed model.

Cross‐cultural awareness and occupational therapy education

“…Gibbs (1984) has questioned the validity of some of the positive responses in cultural attitudes found through just attending a short course. Since cultural sensitivity is an attitude, and changing one's attitude requires restructuring one's pre-existing thought process, which takes place in stages, a longer period of time and exposure is needed (Lopez et al, 1989).…”

Racial Differences in DSM Diagnosis Using a Semi-Structured Instrument: The Importance of Clinical Judgment in the Diagnosis of African Americans

“…The point is that clinicians must be able to make such difficult and challenging withingroup and between-group distinctions (Castillo 1997;Othmer and Othmer 1994; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 2001). These are issues best dealt with in clinical training programs that show clinicians how to complete their tasks in culturally diverse situations (Lopez et al 1989).…”

Examining the generalizability of problem-solving appraisal in Black South Africans.

“…Furthermore, there has been a relatively small number of studies that have examined the link between problem-solving appraisal and psychological distress in countries other than the United States (e.g., Cheng & Lam, 1997;Pretorius, 1992Pretorius, , 1993Pretorius & Diedricks, 1994;Sabourin, Laporte, & Wright, 1990;Sahin, Sahin, & Heppner, 1993). More research is needed with cross-national samples to (a) search for psychological universals (i.e., etic approach; Lonner, 1980;Lopez et al, 1989); (b) identify culturally specific constructs, which are useful for identifying and explaining cultural differences (i.e., emic approach; Lonner, 1985); and (c) integrate the etic and emic approaches to clarify conceptual differences and build a more comprehensive knowledge base in psychology (Berry, Poortinga, Segall, & Dasen, 1999). Cross-national research with the PSI would not only provide useful psychometric information about the generalizability of the PSI factor structure but also, more important, help researchers to understand the nature of the relationship between problem-solving appraisal and psychological distress in different cultures.…”