Culturally Responsive Mental Health Care: Supporting members of the Black, Asian, Latino/Latina, and LGBTQI+ communities
Fulfills requirement: Diversity
This training opportunity is approved by the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) to train: Counselor/Therapist, Nurse, Psychologist, and Social Worker.
Some of the content from this course is included in other courses.
A culturally responsive approach to mental health involves an understanding and respect for diverse beliefs, values, customs, languages, and social practices of individuals from various backgrounds. For many years, the cultural competence model assumed that mental health professionals could master the subject if given adequate training. However, this model has been criticized because it inaccurately assumes that culture is stagnant and shared by all members of a particular group. Instead, a culturally responsive approach recognizes that it is best to have an attitude of cultural humility and view work with each client as an ongoing learning process that unfolds over time, is flexible, and carefully addresses specific lived experiences. This course intends to strike a balance between providing clinicians with background information on particular cultural groups while cautioning against a one-size-fits-all approach that perpetuates harmful stereotypes.
This intermediate-level course explores the historical and cultural influences that affect members of various racial, ethnic, and sexual minority groups. It also describes cultural issues that relate to treatment barriers and stigma, disparities in mental health care, common themes in treatment, and best practices for developing rapport and conducting therapy. Throughout the course, there is an emphasis on exploring how other factors (e.g., country of origin, immigration, citizenship status, language, acculturation, socioeconomic status, religion, gender, sexuality) shape their clients’ identities.
The first section of the course provides an introduction to culturally responsive care and then the second section applies these concepts to psychotherapy and counseling with Black Americans, Latin Americans, Asian Americans, and members of the LGBTQI+ community. The course content is available in a combination of written, audio, and video formats and includes the following: (1) original written content based on the most up-to-date research and practice recommendations and (2) interview segments with mental health professionals who have extensive experience working with their respective clinical populations.
Educational Objectives
This course will teach the participant to
- Describe the ways in which cultural issues relate to treatment barriers and stigma.
- Identify important clinical themes relevant to therapy.
- Explain the individual factors to consider when working with diverse clients, such as country of origin, immigration and citizenship status, language, acculturation, and socioeconomic status
- Describe best practices for conducting psychotherapy and counseling with members of various racial, ethnic, and sexual minority groups.
Syllabus
Introduction to Culturally Responsive Mental Health Treatment
- Mental health disparities across cultures
- Need for flexible culturally-responsive approach
- Defining key concepts of diversity, culture, acculturation, race, and ethnicity
- Culturally-responsive care for addressing mental health needs of diverse population
- Cultural competence
- Cultural humility
- Intersectionality
- Culturally responsive mental health and ethics
- Key attitudes and behaviors of culturally-responsive mental health professionals
- Clients’ culture and impact on assessment and treatment
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- Culture as related to barriers, beliefs, and stigmas
- Useful assessment measures
- Clients’ culture and impact on outreach
- Guidelines for selecting measures for diverse populations
- Guidelines for choosing and adapting interventions or programs for diverse populations
Bridging Gaps and Misunderstandings: Interview with Lambers Fisher, LMFT
- Limitations of mandated diversity trainings
- Emphasis on tools to help clients feel culturally seen and understood
- Dangers of myopic vision and assumptions that everyone is part of a monoculture
- Asking clients about their culture versus expecting it is the clients’ job to educate therapists
- Therapist/client matching versus discussing cultural differences
- Empathy and authenticity as foundations for clinical work
Section Two: Applications to Black Americans, Latin Americans, Asian Americans, and Members of the LGBTQI+ Community
Culturally Responsive Counseling and Psychotherapy with Black Clients: An Interview with Marquez Wilson, PsyD
- Who is a black client
- Racism and its psychological impact
- Societal factors contributing to the experience of racism
- Best practices in working with Black clients
- Establishing trust and rapport
- Strengths of Black Clients
- Role of religion
- Generational differences
Working with Latin American Clients: Interview with Natalie Reinfeld, Psy.D.
- Building rapport and understanding
- Therapeutic boundaries while honoring cultural expressions
- Addressing stereotypes and appreciating individual experience
- Navigating different cultural identities and mental health
- Immigration process and mental health
- Diagnoses and cultural norms
- Role of the therapist in empowering clients and families
- Working with undocumented clients
Working with Asian American Clients: Interview with Helen Hsu, Psy.D., and Jan Estrellado, Ph.D.
- Terminology and diversity within the Asian populations
- Reasons for low participation rates in mental health treatment and high rates of dropout
- Cultural, geographic, language, and financial barriers
- Ruptures in therapeutic alliance due to therapist microaggressions and faulty assumptions
- How to support clients living authentically within the context of their cultural values
- Addressing internalized oppression and intergenerational trauma
Helping LGBTQI+ Clients Become and Stay Resilient: Presentation by Davina Kotulski, Ph.D.
- Resilience: definition and common themes
- Adversities facing LGBTQI+ people
- Identifying factors that contribute to resilience
- Protective factors in resilience
- Age, gender and sexual orientation and resilience
- How to support resilience in LGBTQI+ youth and adults in therapy