7 Ways Culturally Competent Mental Health Providers Can Make a Difference

If you’ve ever sat in a therapy session and spent half the time explaining your background instead of the issue you came to talk about, you’ll know how draining that can be. For many people from diverse backgrounds, this experience is one of the main reasons for avoiding therapy altogether.

Overcoming barriers to mental health care often starts with finding a therapist who doesn’t add to the burden. Research shows that when culturally competent therapy is adapted to the person receiving it, outcomes improve.¹ When a therapist understands enough about the world you live in, you can get straight into the work that needs to be done.

Here are seven ways culturally competent mental health providers approach things differently, and why it matters.

1. You Don’t Have to Explain Your Whole Culture

One of the most common frustrations for people from minority backgrounds in therapy is the amount of time spent educating the therapist. Jay Carmona, a Hispanic man who started therapy from a young age, described this well. He stated that whenever a topic would be brought up that was specific to Hispanic culture, he had to stop and explain what it meant before they could move forward.²

An Asian-American woman in therapy also experienced difficulty in that she would tailor her stories to fit closer to what she imagined a white therapist might want to hear. She explained that doing this helped the session go more smoothly.³

These situations turn into cognitive labor on top of emotional labor, all happening during the one hour you’re paying to focus on yourself. Diversity in mental health care matters because it means the client doesn’t have to do extra work just to be understood. You can walk in and start right away.

2. Race Is Brought Up and Identified, so You’re Not Left Guessing Whether It’s Allowed

A lot of people never mention race or cultural background in therapy, and the reason is often that the therapist never opened that door in the first place. If no one asks about it, the assumption is that race doesn’t belong in the room, for whatever reason that may be.

It may sound strange that someone would wait for their therapist to ask before opening up on something important to them. But one interviewee described the therapist as the “broker of permission” when it comes to these conversations, explaining that permission to talk about race has to be given before it will happen. This is because the unspoken social rule is that we don’t talk about race.⁴

The importance of cultural competence in therapy appears clearly in these early moments, when the therapist either opens the door or leaves it closed. Inclusive counseling starts with making it clear that these conversations are welcome from the beginning.

Research has found that when therapists successfully addressed the cultural dynamics in the room, the therapeutic relationship was much stronger.⁵ It is avoidance that often causes damage, not the conversation itself.

3. It Is Understood That Your Family Being Involved Might Actually Be Love

Western therapy was built around individualism, and its default mode values autonomy and boundary-setting. This can feel a little disrespectful to people from collectivist cultures, where family involvement in decisions is more common.

One woman described leaving her therapist after being repeatedly told to “stand up to her mother.” The therapist didn’t understand how close-knit her family was, or that her family’s involvement in her life wasn’t a problem that needed to be solved.⁶

Another therapist noted that her clients had described previous white therapists as struggling to understand why setting boundaries in their families was so complicated. The therapist observed that this misunderstanding sometimes led to normal family dynamics being pathologized as a clinical issue.⁷

This is where multicultural counseling makes a real difference, because it understands that healthy family dynamics don’t look the same in every culture. A culturally competent therapist can tell the difference between enmeshment and interdependence, and this knowledge can change the entire treatment approach.

4. Racism Is Recognized

A South Asian woman described in an online essay how her white therapist “tried to impress upon me that my feelings of being racially othered were a product of an internalized self-hatred that we could fix through psychotherapy.” ⁸

When she finally tried to discuss race, the therapist became hostile and blaming.⁸

A Middle Eastern woman, quoted in a blog post, described being told by a therapist, “You’re intimidating as hell, and you need to stop it,” because the way she naturally expressed her emotions was misunderstood and labeled as emotional instability.⁹

Research has found that up to 81% of racial and ethnic minority clients experienced at least one microaggression in therapy, most commonly involving the therapist avoiding the topic or minimizing cultural issues.¹⁰

Cultural competence in therapy means recognizing racism as a legitimate source of psychological harm, rather than dismissing it as a perception problem. Addressing systemic bias in counseling starts with the therapist being willing to name what is happening rather than tiptoeing around it.

5. Inclusive Therapy Practices Work

This is probably the most important finding in the research on inclusive therapy practices. When therapy is culturally adapted to a specific group, it produces much better outcomes. Every major review conducted on this topic over the past two decades has reached the same conclusion.¹¹

One analysis found that interventions targeted to a specific cultural group were four times more effective than those designed for mixed groups.¹²

Mental health equity goes far beyond access to services. What happens once you’re inside the therapy room matters just as much.

6. Your Therapists Understand Cultural Humility

Research shows that people tend to prefer a therapist who shares their background, but that preference alone doesn’t predict whether therapy will actually work.¹³

What does predict outcomes is something called cultural humility. This is the therapist’s willingness to approach your experience with genuine curiosity rather than assumptions.¹⁴

One woman described that after being paired with a therapist of the same ethnicity, she was dismissed by her when she tried to explain challenges associated with her ethnicity.³

In this particular example, skin color didn’t mean automatic shared understanding. On the same forum, another user shared her experience when she encountered a therapist from a different culture:

“She never claimed to be able to understand what I was going through. She helped me build my own understanding on my own terms.”³

This shows how important humility is for therapists. The therapist didn’t pretend to relate to her, but provided enough space for her experience to play out naturally. 

7. Spirituality Is Recognized 

In many Black, Latino, Indigenous, and Asian communities, spiritual practices are central to the way people understand aspects of life like suffering or healing. When a therapist sidesteps this, it damages the therapeutic relationship, but if they integrate it, outcomes improve.

A review of 97 studies found that psychotherapy adapted to include religious and spiritual elements outperformed standard treatment for psychological outcomes.¹⁴ This included approaches like faith-informed cognitive therapy that had been adapted for different religious backgrounds.

A culturally competent therapist doesn’t need to share your faith, but they do need to respect it as a legitimate part of how you process your mental health. Trying to work around it is not helpful and is likely to hold you back or may even cause further issues.

How AMFM Can Help

If you’ve been searching for culturally sensitive therapy that actually fits who you are, A Mission For Michael can help.

Accessing culturally sensitive therapy shouldn’t feel like another barrier to getting better. Our team understands that effective treatment needs to reflect the person receiving it, which is why we don’t use a generic treatment model. 

AMFM provides mental health support for diverse communities, with therapeutic approaches that are adapted to you. We specialize in providing outpatient and residential treatment programs for various kinds of mental health conditions, including:

• Depression
• Anxiety disorders
• Neurodiverse conditions
• Psychosis
• Personality disorders
• And more

If you’re dealing with the emotional weight of systems that weren’t designed with you in mind, our clinicians are trained to meet you where you are. 

If you’ve been putting off getting support because you haven’t found the right fit, contact AMFM today. A member of our team will be happy to talk you through your options and next steps.

References

1. Sue, S., Fujino, D. C., Hu, L., Takeuchi, D. T., & Zane, N. W. S. (1991). Community mental health services for ethnic minority groups: A test of the cultural responsiveness hypothesis. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 59(4), 533–540. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-006X.59.4.533
2. Medina, G. (2023, May 24). Latinos need therapists to acknowledge our culture. Greater Good. https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/latinos_need_therapists_to_acknowledge_our_culture
3. Ask MetaFilter. (2016). My therapist is white. I’m not. MetaFilter. https://ask.metafilter.com/294347/My-therapist-is-white-Im-not
4. Wyatt, R. (n.d.). Kenneth Hardy interview on diversity, social justice, and psychotherapy. Psychotherapy.net. https://www.psychotherapy.net/interview/kenneth-hardy
5. Owen, J., Tao, K., Imel, Z. E., & Rodolfa, E. (2014). Addressing racial and ethnic microaggressions in therapy. American Psychological Association. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/277685063_Addressing_Racial_and_Ethnic_Microaggressions_in_Therapy
6. Hackman, R. (2016, May 28). Your therapist is white. You’re not. Is this a problem? The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/may/28/finding-good-therapist-gender-race-cultural-competency
7. Kumamoto, I. (2022, March 8). When will therapists stop dismissing racial trauma? Mic. https://www.mic.com/identity/therapists-dismissing-racial-trauma
8. Babu, C. (2017, January 18). Why I left my white therapist. VICE. https://www.vice.com/en/article/why-i-left-my-white-therapist/
9. Jensen, A. (2025, August 18). When culture gets pathologized in therapy. Garden Refuge IL. https://www.gardenrefugeil.org/post/when-culture-gets-pathologized-in-therapy
10. Chu, W., Wippold, G., & Becker, K. D. (2022). A systematic review of cultural competence trainings for mental health providers. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 53(4), 362–371. https://doi.org/10.1037/pro0000469
11. Hall, G. C. N., Ibaraki, A. Y., Huang, E. R., Marti, C. N., & Stice, E. (2016). A meta-analysis of cultural adaptations of psychological interventions. Behavior Therapy, 47(6), 993–1014. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beth.2016.09.005
12. Smith, T. B., & Griner, D. (2025). Culturally adapted mental health interventions: A meta-analytic review. BYU ScholarsArchive. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/facpub/279/
13. Smith, T. B., & Cabral, R. R. (2014). Racial/ethnic matching of clients and therapists in mental health services: A meta-analytic review of preferences, perceptions, and outcomes. BYU ScholarsArchive. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/facpub/80/
14. Captari, L. E., Hook, J. N., Hoyt, W., Davis, D. E., McElroy-Heltzel, S. E., & Worthington, E. L. (2018). Integrating clients’ religion and spirituality within psychotherapy: A comprehensive meta-analysis. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 74(11), 1938–1951. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.22681