Diversity in clinical practice
Lectures + Articles
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7
Tutorials + Articles
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 7
Additional Questions
Review
Practice Exam
, Lectures + Articles
Week 1
Lecture 1: Introduction and cultural Self Awareness
- Vasquez, M. J. (2007). Cultural difference and the therapeutic alliance: An
evidence-based analysis. American Psychologist, 62(8), 878-885.
- Pantalone, Iwamasa, & Martell (2011). Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy with Diverse
populations. In: Dobson, K.S. (Ed.), Handbook of cognitive-behavioral therapies (3rd ed.
– pp. 453-456). The Guilford Press, New York
Vasquez, M. J. = Cultural difference and the therapeutic alliance
(2007) - Everyone has unintentional biases
- These attitudes and behaviors extend to the process of
psychotherapy which can interfere with the therapeutic alliance
- Evidence-Based Practice: integrating best available research and clinical
expertise.
- Therapeutic alliance: the relationship between the clinician and the
client. The quality of this predicts treatment outcome
- Minorities: drop out more due to lack of alliance, ethnic and
linguistic matching decrease dropout rates
- Positive influences on therapeutic alliance
- Personal attributes: flexibility, honesty, trust, warm,
open, curious
- Techniques: exploration, reflection, accurate
interpretation
- Steele (1997) findings: “stereotype threat” when ethnic minorities are
asked to perform a task (stereotyped), they underperform due to the
threat, fear, and anxiety of underperforming.
- Strategies to reduce the most critical is a constant awareness of attitudes.
- Other strategies involve effort and practice in changing the automatic
favorable perceptions of the white privileged group and negative
perceptions of those whose historical roles in society have been left with
negative perceptions
Pantalone, Iwamasa, = Treating individuals with diverse backgrounds (CBT)
& Martell (2011) 1. Honest self-assessment and Information gathering
- Honest self-appraisal of own biases and blindspots
(self-exploration)
- Lifelong commitment to understanding cultural differences &
introspection
2. Do Competent CBT
- Do it as you know it, the basic tenets of CBT will uphold for
many different subgroups
- Problem-focused, oriented towards clients' goals, functional
analysis, and giving routine homework to strengthen skills.
3. Thematic issues that vary across subgroups
- Health beliefs: different explanatory models of illnesses will
influence treatment recommendations due to the patient's
compliance
- Self-identification: high variation in diverse groups, how people
outwardly identify themselves, what do they find important?
- Individualism & Collectivism: collectivist cultures may not
