November 2020 Clinical Supervision Topic: Cultural and Identity Adaptation
Let’s talk about food for a minute.
What foods do you eat only in the mornings? And what are the foods you only eat in the evenings? Are there certain times you eat, and don’t eat? And foods you eat for specific days of the week? What about holidays? Foods you only eat with one side of your family, but not the other? Do the people who know you best know your favorite foods? Know your comfort foods?
When we get to know a person well, we often get to know their food. When we get to know our clients’ identities and cultures well, the same attention to detail and open curiosity will serve us well.
When someone steps into our office (whether virtually or otherwise), we need to know all about the “food” they are bringing with them (sorry, poor metaphor, but the picture was too delicious not to use). We need to know all of their intersectional identities and their cultural background(s), and how those relate to the reason they are presenting for services, and to mental health. It can be helpful to know:
what their family believes about mental health;
the way their friends talk about the client’s presenting problem;
the stories they were told about diagnoses growing up;
what they have read in books or seen in media about health;
their belief system around their challenges;
what their culture(s) (and not necessarily the dominant culture) says will solve the problem.
Within the common factors, our ability to adapt our approach and our evidence-based practices to our clients’ culture and identities will improve our alliance, increase their time in treatment, and improve their outcomes.
A link for further reading if needed (I’ve linked to this article many times, so you may have already read it).
We’ll be discussing the content in this podcast episode: Therapy for Black Girls: Affirming Your Queer Identity. It discusses queer identity and culture, Black culture, what it’s like for queer therapy clients and more.
Come ready to discuss one or two ways you get to know someone’s cultures and identities.
