Tag Archives: cultural issues

Awareness of Cultural Influences

counselingI am a female therapist working with a young woman in her 20’s. She has an opportunity for a promotion which would involve business travel a couple times a month, and would be a good career move for her. However, she is considering turning down the promotion because she helps her parents care for her grandmother who has many health problems. It’s hard for me to see my client sacrifice her professional success for this family obligation. How can I help her with this decision?

This is an example of the influence of cultural values in psychotherapy. You and your client are both female, but you may be different in other cultural identities such as age, ethnicity, social class, sexual identity, religious affiliation, and immigration status. Our values and our views of relationships are shaped by the combination of cultural factors that make up our identity, and these differences between you and your client lead you to different cultural values. The topic of cultural issues in psychotherapy is covered in Chapter 4 of my book.

It is important for you to recognize that you have formed an opinion about what is best for your client based on your values, but she is letting you know that she views her situation differently. Assuming that she needs to come around to your point of view interferes with the understanding that can develop when you are curious and interested in her perspective. Take time to encourage her to explore and reflect on the values she is expressing by pursuing a career and by caring for her grandmother so she can become more clear about the dilemma she is facing. As you are more open to considering her point of view, you will be able to empathize with her complex feelings and to support her making a decision in line with what is most meaningful to her.

Be aware that your client may be making assumptions about what is and isn’t acceptable to her family, and she may not have discussed her decision openly with her family. Our beliefs about ourselves and relationships are often internalized early in life and may not be fully within her awareness or part of recent family conversations. Once you have helped your client become aware of her values, you and she can examine them together to see the extent to which they inform her decision. It may also be useful for her to talk with others in her cultural community to see whether there is more diversity of opinion than she assumes or than she believes based on her individual experience in her family. Getting consultation, especially from someone who is familiar with your client’s cultural influences, will be helpful in managing your feelings as she arrives at her decision.

In addition to your client’s values, examine the practical issues that may influence her decision to take this promotion. The immigration status of her parents and grandmother, the family’s financial resources, and the presence of other support in the community are all factors that may make it more or less difficult for your client to prioritize her career, if that is what she wishes to do. It may take time for her to disclose some of these details to you, depending on the extent to which she holds cultural values that consider such matters as private, not to be shared outside the family.

This career decision may be the beginning of numerous situations your client will face and need to discuss in therapy. Whatever she decides about this promotion, continuing to talk with her about her cultural values will be helpful in her developmental progress. It is likely that she will face similar choices in the future as she navigates her career and family commitments. If you recognize your values and assumptions as culturally influenced and develop an authentic interest and curiosity in your client’s perspective, the therapy is likely to develop into a deeper and richer relationship. You have an opportunity to provide your client with the experience of empathy, understanding, and respect that will build her confidence in making this and future decisions.

If you’re interested in reading more about this and related issues, click here to order from Amazon or here to order from Routledge.

 

Cross-Cultural Mental Health Treatment

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I have just been assigned to see a client who is from a culture that is completely unfamiliar to me.  She immigrated to the U.S. three years ago and speaks English, but I’m concerned about being able to do psychotherapy with her.  How can I make sure I don’t over diagnose symptoms that may have a different cultural meaning for her than for my other clients?

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It’s good that you’re aware of the importance of your client’s culture in your diagnosis and psychotherapy.  When working with a client whose culture is unfamiliar to you, I recommend doing some research into the culture to learn some basic facts about her country of origin.  If you haven’t worked with other individuals who are recent immigrants, doing research into this area will also be valuable.  However, also remember that your client is the best person to educate you about herself.  She is presenting for behavioral health treatment because she is in distress and wants help with some issues that are troubling her.  The skills you use in the first session with any client will serve you well in this situation.  In addition, you may want to ask her how her family members or friends in her country of origin would understand or interpret her symptoms to provide some cultural context for her concerns.

One way to keep the cultural context in mind when using the DSM for diagnostic purposes is to ask about events leading up to the client’s immigration and conditions since she arrived in the U.S.  It is possible that an adjustment disorder or posttraumatic stress disorder diagnosis may be appropriate.  If her symptoms don’t fit either of these diagnoses, you can use an initial “not otherwise specified” or provisional diagnosis, which will note your lack of sufficient information to make a full diagnosis.  This can be changed as you learn more about her history and current life circumstances.

Another way to use the DSM as a resource for assessment is to incorporate the cultural formulation found in Appendix I of the DSM-IV and in Section III of the DSM-5.  The outline for cultural formulation includes cultural identity, cultural conceptualization of distress, psychosocial stressors and supports, and cross-cultural features of the treatment relationship.  The DSM-5 also includes a set of interview questions that can be used in assessing the cultural context of the client’s clinical presentation.

A final issue to consider in your initial assessment and ongoing psychotherapy is the cultural context of your role as a professional in the therapeutic relationship.  If you are still in training, you may not think of yourself as an expert, and many of your U.S. born clients may treat you as a peer or make comments about your status as an intern or trainee.  Many other cultures hold a value of deference to authority, however, and this may make your client reluctant to disagree with you or to express her preferences about the treatment.  In addition, recent immigrants and other cultural groups often have experiences of discrimination and misunderstanding by officials, administrators and service providers.  It can be helpful to directly express your interest in the client’s ideas, to ask open-ended rather than closed questions, and to acknowledge the extent and limitations of your knowledge.  Even so, it may take more time to develop a therapeutic alliance with this client than with clients who are from cultural backgrounds similar to yours.

I hope you find this blog helpful in working cross-culturally.  Please email me with comments, questions or suggestions for future blog topics.