Integrating Culture into Therapy

Integrating Culture into Therapy

I decided to think about the following two articles for this assignment: Brown in America: Living with Racial and Religious Bias by Kiran Shahreen Kaur Arora and White Privilege, Pathological Shame, and Guilt, and the Perversion of Morality by Robert Shelby. Given that many White men in my own family do not believe that White privilege is a problem for many individuals in the United States, I chose Shelby’s essay because I was curious to learn about White privilege from a White man’s perspective. I chose Arora’s article because she discusses being a “South Asian, Brown-Skinned, Sikh, Canadian, woman” in the United States and speaks extensively about the “Brown-skinned” experience of racism and discrimination, which is frequently overlooked in “favor” of other racial/ethnic minority experiences.

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A fish is unaware of how it breathes in water until it tries to breathe air, according to Shelby (2019), who builds on this metaphor throughout the rest of the piece by saying, “A fish is unaware of the water it swims in until it is no longer in the water” (Shelby, 2019, p. 286). Then, these metaphors are compared to White privilege in the U.S., where White people are born into a society that was founded on White privilege and frequently do not immediately recognize these privileges until they look at their own lives and experiences from the perspectives of others, or until they are “no longer in the water” (Shelby, 2019, p. 286). Given my personal life experiences—I am a White woman born in the United States to a (predominantly) White family—and the community I grew up in, primarily made up of other White families, this metaphor speaks to me. I didn’t appreciate how fortunate I was to have been born “White” until I got to college because I had no exposure to or knowledge of anything else. Now that I have learned about various perspectives and other cultures’ experiences, I am astonished by how far I have gone and how much I have developed when I go home. Although they enjoy its benefits daily, some of my family members, primarily older ones, do not believe that White privilege exists. They think that others are “lazy” and should “work harder” rather than “complaining” that our society’s very foundation is discriminating against them.

I was inspired to reassess my life experiences by a single phrase from Shelby’s (2019) article: “Just as it was my fate to be born to the two people who called themselves my parents, so it was for everyone else.” No one could blame their birth circumstances for their privilege or wrongdoing (Shelby, 2019, p. 285). Nobody chooses to be born, and neither does anyone choose to be taken into a family of a particular color, ethnicity, social class, etc. The fact that I was born to my parents, who are (mainly) White and not to other non-White individuals, is purely coincidental. My birth as a White person to White parents makes me privileged, but someone who had the “misfortune” to have parents of a different race or ethnicity does not have the same inherent “benefits” as I do. For what purpose? How dark is my skin? I find that appalling. But this is, unfortunately, how our society operates.

Arora’s (2019) paper presented a novel, multicultural viewpoint on racism in the United States. Many Americans instinctively associate “racism” with the experiences of African Americans or other people of color without giving other racial and ethnic groups in our culture who face discrimination a second thought. While it is vital to hear about and educate oneself on the racism experienced by African Americans and other members of the Black community, it is also crucial to educate oneself on all of the different racial and ethnic experiences that are sometimes disregarded. In particular, Arora (2019) explores how this “lack of attention and interest” in races “other than white or Black” has affected her academic and professional experiences. Arora tried to submit articles about the Sikh experience to academic journals. Still, she was turned down because the subject was “too specific.” She would have to put in extra effort to make her work “broad and interesting to the masses” (Arora, 2019, p. 255) as if a diverse viewpoint were in some way uninteresting to the general public.

The following line from Arora’s (2019) article struck a chord with me and my experiences studying other cultures: “We must have the courage to examine how the field continues to uphold white supremacy and Christian hegemony by blatantly ignoring and silencing issues faced by Brown people of various faiths” (Arora, 2019, p. 258). She emphasizes in her piece that racial or religious prejudice exists in marital and family therapy, which can “silence” the experiences of particular racial and ethnic groups (Arora, 2019). When I was an undergrad, I attended a course called “Multicultural Psychology,” and I also experienced what I would call the “silencing” of various racial and ethnic groups. According to the course description in the university catalog, the course would cover a variety of multicultural experiences. However, out of the 16 weeks that made up the course, 14 of those weeks were devoted to discussing the African American experience, and the remaining one unit allowed us to select a “different” race or ethnicity to learn about and then present our research to the class. Since I inquired why this course was titled “Multicultural Psychology” when it only addressed one cultural group, I was informed that I was attempting to “undermine the Black experience.” Although I appreciated learning about African American and Black lives and valued what I knew, I wondered why the course was generically called “Multicultural” if we were studying one culture. This incident, whether deliberate or not, seems to be another instance of how a field (psychology) that prides itself on being “culturally sensitive” and “culturally competent” has “silenced” the experiences of people of various races and ethnicities. Now, if the course had been titled “African American Psychology” or something like that, I wouldn’t have been troubled by the lack of exposure to other cultures and the concentration on a single group. However, despite the course’s promise to be “multicultural,” other cultural groups’ experiences were overlooked.

Culture-honoring Postmodern Models

For several reasons, postmodern therapeutic methods, in my opinion, mesh nicely with a cultural humility perspective. According to Combs and Freedman (2012) and D’Arrigo-Patrick et al. (2017), several postmodern therapeutic models heavily emphasize social justice and understanding power imbalances in interpersonal relationships. This makes sense when viewed through cultural humility, which “emphasizes the need for accountability” at both the individual and institutional levels (Fisher-Born et al., 2015, p. 172). A greater understanding of oneself and examining privilege and power are necessary for cultivating cultural humility, which also “seeks to promote self-awareness” (Fisher-Born et al., 2015, p. 175). This aligns with postmodern therapy models since social constructionism, which forms the basis of many postmodern therapy models, “describes how we engage in a constant process of updating and reinterpreting our own identities and social realities” (Gehart, 2014, p. 387). To “make treatment culturally appropriate for individuals who come to see us,” narrative therapy, in particular, urges therapists to acknowledge and examine their “own cultural biases” (Combs & Freedman, 2012, p. 1053). Last but not least, in postmodern models of therapy, clients are viewed as the subject-matter experts for their circumstances and experiences, and therapists frequently adopt a “not-knowing” stance to allow clients to direct the therapeutic process by their own needs (D’Arrigo-Patrick et al., 2017; Gehart, 2014; Trepper, 2012). This makes sense from a cultural humility perspective since culturally humble therapists acknowledge that “one does not know and is eager to learn from patients about their experiences” (Lekas et al., 2020, p. 2).

While reading the studies for this project, it appeared that narrative therapy best addressed the authors’ situations. Narrative therapists view people as “relational, dispersed, performative, and fluid” entities with many facets (Combs & Freedman, 2012, p. 1042). With this in mind, it can be said that people are molded by the relationships they have with those around them. As a result, people behave differently depending on where they are and who they are with, and their sense of “self” is continuously changing as they interact with new people and situations (Combs & Freedman, 2012). The ideal illustration of a “relational self” is Shelby (2019). He talks about his encounters with White Privilege, recognizing how it has affected his ability to obtain employment in several settings just because he is a “White guy,” which is not attainable for others. In the piece, he discusses the events that inspired him to “fight for social justice” (Shelby, 2019, p. 286). Like all of us, Shelby’s relationships with others and their views have shaped who he is. Arora is the ideal illustration of a “played self” in the other piece I thought about for this project. Because she was called “aggressive” for trying to talk about racial “problems” (i.e., different experiences) with her coworkers, she came to believe that “talking about race must be avoided at all costs” (Arora, 2019, p. 254). She has acquired the ability to “act” to be someone else with these particular colleagues.

In narrative therapy, “dominant” vs. “local” (or alternative) discourses are also emphasized (Gehart, 2014). Shelby (2019) argues how “dominant” discourses can occasionally marginalize and discriminate against “minority groups,” such as when White privilege and supremacy are “simply the way things are” in our society. To “make therapy culturally appropriate” for all clients, narrative therapists, as previously mentioned, work to acknowledge and examine their “own cultural biases” (Combs & Freedman, 2012, p. 1053). This demonstrates the significance of therapists’ cultural backgrounds when considering clients through the lens of cultural humility: to be culturally humble; therapists must be self-aware and mindful of their own cultural experiences and biases to ensure that these do not affect how they approach clients with “diverse” (i.e., different) cultural experiences and preferences.

The client is seen as an expert (not-knowing position), and externalization and inquiries as interventions are some postmodern therapy strategies that work well with a cultural humility lens. Although adopting a “not-knowing” perspective is not a “method,” it is crucial, in my opinion, because it directs the therapist toward a therapeutic approach that is culturally modest—seeing the client as “apart from their problems” is known as externalization, a key “technique” used in narrative therapy (Gehart, 2014, p. 402). To aid clients in separating themselves from the issues that appear to rule their lives, clients are advised to “identify” their difficulties (Combs & Freedman, 2012; Gehart, 2014). This is related to the not-knowing stance; by giving clients the freedom to “name” their issues and interactions with them, therapists are less likely to impose their own cultural experiences and viewpoints on their patients and their problems, allowing the client’s own cultural experiences to be heard. The last point is that story therapy and SFBT use questions as interventions (Combs et al., 2012). In narrative therapy, inquiries are employed to “create an experience” and compile data while maintaining the “focus on the client’s experience” (Combs & Freedman, 2012, pp. 1043-1044). Compared to “directives or interpretations,” inquiries are “gentler, less judgmental, and more equalizing” in SFBT and are more conducive to solution development (Trepper, 2012, p. 140). In narrative therapy, deconstruction and externalizing questions, as well as miracle and scaling questions for SFBT, are examples of question types that can be utilized as interventions. In therapy, asking questions as a method of intervention helps therapists maintain their “not-knowing” perspective and promotes cultural humility.

A cultural humility lens and postmodern therapeutic approaches mesh well. Their emphasis on social justice, power, and privilege, the self-awareness of the therapist, and a “not-knowing,” client-as-expert stance in the therapeutic process all highlight how adept postmodern therapists can be at being culturally humble. (Combs & Freedman, 2012; D’Arrigo-Patrick et al., 2017; Fisher-Born, Cain, & Martin, 2015; Gehart, 2014; Lekas, Pah The not-knowing position, externalization, and inquiries as interventions are additional postmodern therapeutic strategies that enable therapists to engage in cultural humility alongside their patients (Combs & Freedman, 2012; Gehart, 2014; Trepper, 2012). I had fun reading Shelby’s and Arora’s articles this week and thinking about them. It is enlightening to hear two authors with such contrasting views on White privilege and the experiences of other racial and ethnic minorities in the United States, and it is interesting to analyze these views from the standpoint of two culturally humble authors.

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References

Arora, K. S. K. (2019). Brown in America: Living with racial and religious bias. In M. McGoldrick & K. Hardy (Eds.), Re-visioning family therapy, (pp. 251–260). The Guilford Press.

Combs, G., & Freedman, J. (2012). Narrative, poststructuralism, and social justice: Current practices in narrative therapy. The Counseling Psychologist, pp. 40, 1033–1060.

D’Arrigo-Patrick, J., Hoff, C., Knudson-Martin, C., & Tuttle, A. (2017). Navigating critical theory and postmodernism: Social justice and therapist power in family therapy. Family Process, pp. 56, 574–588.

Gehart, D. R. (2014). Mastering competencies in family therapy. Belmont, CA: Brooks-Cole, Cengage Learning.

Fisher-Borne, M., Cain, J. M., & Martin, S. L. (2015). From mastery to accountability: Cultural humility as an alternative to cultural competence. Social Work Education, 34(2), 165–181.

Lekas, H., Pahl, K., & Fuller-Lewis, C. (2020). Rethinking cultural competence: Shifting to cultural humility. Health Services Insights, 13, 1-4.

Shelby, R. (2019). White privilege, pathological shame, guilt, and the perversion of morality. In M. McGoldrick & K. Hardy (Eds.), Re-visioning family therapy, (pp. 283–297). The Guilford Press.

Trepper, T. S. (2012). Solution-focused brief therapy with families. Asia Pacific Journal of Counseling and Psychotherapy, 3(2), 137-148.

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For this assignment, you will create a newspaper article highlighting the experiences of something “different” from your perception of the world.

Integrating Culture into Therapy

Consider an issue, identity, or difference that makes you uncomfortable. It may be something you are not familiar with or just want to know more about.

Identify a person (family or couple) with this “difference” who is willing to share their experiences with you. The person, family, or couple that you pick is open-ended. Maybe it is someone with a different belief system; it is perhaps a couple of a diverse background than you; maybe it is someone who grew up in a foreign country; the possibilities are endless (Note: In friend or family circles, it is likely you could identify a difference that would fit for this assignment. Also, you could contact a local organization and see if someone would be willing – e.g., LGBTQ+ community centers, places of worship, political centers, etc.).

Make sure the person or persons you are interviewing know that you are doing an assignment that challenges you to look at differences and present your reflections on these differences. Be prepared with questions and directions so you do not take up too much of their time (try limiting it to 20 minutes). Remember, be open and curious. Some themes that you will explore in the interview:

• Their background (exploring that “difference”).
• The elements of their identity that they are most passionate about.
• Intersectionality and the influence in their life.
• Challenges they have experienced.
• Rewards (strengths) related to that “difference.”

In the interview space, be prepared with questions. You do not need to record the interview, but taking notes is a good idea. Remember, you are there to listen to their story and appreciate them.

Your newspaper article will highlight the themes noted above. Please integrate your story with at least two scholarly references.

Include a brief reflection (1 page) on the experience of learning about this person or persons and the impact it might have on you as a therapist.

Length: 3-5 p

References: Include a minimum of 2 scholarly resources.