Overview

Culture influences how a client develops and expresses emotional distress and how that distress is healed through therapeutic intervention. Multicultural Care in Practice emphasises culturally adapting psychotherapy to the needs of the clients, employing cultural competence to maximally connect with clients. Becoming culturally competent involves a clinical commitment to gaining knowledge and awareness of the client's attitudes, which enables the clinician to intellectually, affectively, and culturally empathise with the client and demonstrate cultural sensitivity — showing awareness, interest, and commitment to recognising the client's culture in all aspects of the therapeutic relationship. Multicultural care practitioners recognise the importance of clinical competence. However, they also recognise the value of cultural competence, and research indicates that clients who perceive their therapist to be culturally competent have better outcomes in therapy. In this demonstration, Dr. Lillian Comas-Díaz works with an African American woman who is making a decision about dating a partner outside of her own culture. Dr. Comas-Díaz demonstrates cultural empathy in working with the client, discussing how this decision will impact the client's relationship with her family and how to preserve that relationship while remaining true to herself.

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9781433813689

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Lillian Comas-Díaz, PhD, is a clinical psychologist in full-time private practice and a clinical professor in the George Washington University Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, USA. Previously, she was a faculty member of the Yale University Department of Psychiatry, where she also directed its Hispanic Clinic. The author of more than 100 publications, Dr. Comas-Díaz is the coeditor of Clinical Guidelines in Cross-Cultural Mental Health (with Ezra Griffith, 1988), Women of Color: Integrating Ethnic and Gender Identities in Psychotherapy (with Beverly Greene, 1994), WomanSoul: The Inner Life of Women's Spirituality (with Carole A. Rayburn, 2008), and Women Psychotherapists: Journeys in Healing (with Marcella Bakur Weiner, 2011). She is the founding editor of Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, the official journal of the Society for the Psychological Study of Ethnic Minorities Issues (APA Division 45). In addition, she serves on several editorial boards and is an associate editor of American Psychologist.

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