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APA Psychotherapy Training Videos are intended solely for educational purposes for mental health professionals. Viewers are expected to treat confidential material found herein according to strict professional guidelines. Unauthorized viewing is prohibited.
In the Inclusive Cultural Empathy approach, the therapist begins by asking the client to talk about the problem or event(s) that brought them into counseling, listing their several different identities and relationships as they complement and conflict with one another. The discussion then branches out to explore each identity and relationship to learn how the client's "culture teachers" have guided the client in different directions. As the therapist and client explore each identity or relationship, the complexity of the presenting problem becomes more apparent. Eventually they would link (a) what the person did or did not do with (b) the expectation or intention the person had in doing or not doing the action and (c) the identity or relationship with the culture teacher(s) who led the client. As the therapist and client organize these different identities and relationships, they will identify underlying culturally learned assumptions and knowledge gaps in the therapist's own understanding as a provider. As a result, they will have a better understanding of the client's internal dialogue, both the positive and supportive messages and the negative destructive messages (i.e., devil and angel) in the client's thinking. The therapist starts by focusing on the client and then explores different themes like the differentiated colors that occur when light goes through a glass pyramid, including both formal and nonformal methods and contexts in the process, toward the end goal of including all salient culture teachers the client brings into counseling. The object is to form a temporary means-oriented client–counselor coalition against the problem. The problem is conceptualized as a third force in counseling, almost like a third complex "presence" with its own will and voice. As the client increases in ability to independently control the problem, the counselor will become less directive and more reflective. |
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