Blog

The Psychotherapy Practice Research Network (PPRNet) blog began in 2013 in response to psychotherapy clinicians, researchers, and educators who expressed interest in receiving regular information about current practice-oriented psychotherapy research. It offers a monthly summary of two or three published psychotherapy research articles. Each summary is authored by Dr. Tasca and highlights practice implications of selected articles. Past blogs are available in the archives. This content is only available in English.

June 2019

Therapist Multicultural Competence and Cultural Adaptation of Psychotherapy

Soto, A., Smith, T.B., Griner, D., Rodriguez, M.D., & Bernal, G. (2018). Cultural adaptations and therapist multicultural competence: Two meta‐analytic reviews. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 74, 1907-1923.

There is emerging evidence that a client’s cultural experiences and background have an impact on the therapeutic alliance and on client outcomes. One means of adjusting psychotherapy is by cultural adaptations, which involve modification of treatment to consider language and culture in such a way that the treatment is more compatible with the client’s values. Cultural adaptation might incorporate holistic/spiritual concepts of wellness, and may include cultural rituals. Therapists could also align treatment goals and methods with the client’s culture. Domains of psychotherapy that psychotherapists can adapt to a client’s culture include: language of treatment, metaphors used in therapy, the person of the therapist (assigning a therapist with a similar cultural background), content discussed, concepts explored, goals of therapy, methods of interventions consistent with cultural values, and the context of treatment. Cultural competence refers to the therapist’s ability to engage and work effectively with diverse clients. These competencies include: awareness (ability to recognize cultural backgrounds, assumptions, and biases), knowledge (understanding of specific cultural groups and their history and experiences), and skills (ability to engage cultural groups and modify treatment to match cultural needs). In the first of two meta analyses, Soto and colleagues identified 99 studies of cultural adaptation that included data from almost 14,000 clients who were mainly Asian American, Hispanic/Latin American, or African American. The most frequent adaptations were for language of therapy, cultural values, and matching therapists with similar racial/ethnic backgrounds. Cultural adaptation had a significant, moderate, and positive effect to improve psychotherapy outcomes, d = 0.50 (se = 0.04; 95% CI, 0.42–0.58; p < 0.001). Even after adjusting for publication bias, the findings were significant but smaller d = 0.35 (95% CI, 0.27–0.43). All types of adaptation had a positive impact, but the biggest effect came with providing treatment in the native language of the client. Also, older clients benefitted most for cultural adaptation. In the second meta-analysis, the authors identified 15 studies of 2,640 clients on the effect of therapists’ level of multicultural competence. They found a significant and moderate association between therapist cultural competence and positive client outcomes, r = 0.24 (95% CI, 0.10–0.37; p < 0.001). However, only the client’s (and not the therapist’s) rating of therapist cultural competence was associated with better outcomes.

Practice Implications

The results of these meta-analyses clearly indicate that both cultural adaptations of psychotherapy and therapist cultural competence improve client outcomes. During the assessment phase, therapists should evaluate clients’ racial and ethnic backgrounds and the salient culturally-specific values and worldviews held by the client. Therapists could, whenever feasible, adapt their treatment to the client’s culturally-held values. Therapists might, if possible, arrange to provide therapy in the native language of the client – particularly for older clients. Cultural issues should be handled by therapists in a humble way. And therapists should keep in mind that it is the client’s experience, and not the therapist’s self-assessment, of cultural competence that is most relevant.

Author email: Alberto_Soto@brown.edu
Effects of Mental Health Interventions with Asian Americans

Huey, S. J. & Tilley, J. L. (2018). Effects of mental health interventions with Asian Americans: A review and meta-analysis. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 86, 915-930.

Do existing mental health interventions work well for patients of Asian descent? Interventions delivered in the typical way in which they were devised may not be as effective as intended when it comes to culturally diverse groups like Asian Americans. The clinical trials in which the treatments were developed typically are almost exclusively made up of White participants, and most evidence-based treatments do not consider cultural considerations. Culturally responsive psychotherapies that are consistent with the cultural norms, values, and expectations of patients may be more effective. That is, if an evidence-based treatment is not culture specific, it may not be as effective as intended. Even when culture is taken into account in evidence-based treatments, the accommodation tends to be for African American or Hispanic/Latino patients, and not for Asian American patients. Asian American and East Asian heritage is often influenced by Confucian values that emphasize interpersonal harmony, mutual obligations, and respect for hierarchy in relationships. This may mean that patients of Asian descent may be less committed to personal choice, more attuned to others, and more socially conforming. This may lead to cultural differences in cognitive processing and emotional reactions to interpersonal contexts. In this meta-analysis, Huey and colleagues assessed if the effects of evidence-based treatments will be bigger if the treatments were specifically tailored for Asian Americans. Their review included 18 studies with 6,377 participants. Samples included Chinese Americans, Cambodian Americans, Korean Americans, Vietnamese Americans, and other Asian groups. Problems treated included depression, PTSD, smoking, and other concerns. About half of the studies were of CBT, and most (91%) were culturally tailored in some way either for an Asian subgroup or tailored for minorities in general. The mean effect size for evidence-based treatments versus control groups was d = .75, SE = .14, p < .001, indicating a moderate to large effect. Treatments tailored specifically for Asian subgroups (e.g., Chinese Americans) showed the largest effects (d = 1.10), whereas treatment with no cultural tailoring or non-Asian tailoring showed the smallest effects (d = .25).

Practice Implications

Existing psychological treatments are efficacious for Asian Americans, with moderate effects. However, treatments specifically adapted for Asian American subgroups showed the largest effects, indicating that specific cultural adaptations could substantially improve the effectiveness of psychotherapy. Asian Americans face challenges in terms of using and engaging in treatments. Developing culturally specific interventions to improve acceptability of treatment may be one way to make the most therapeutic impact on one of the largest growing racial groups in North America.

Author email: hueyjr@usc.edu
Therapists Differ in Their Effectiveness with Racial/Ethnic Minority Clients

Hayes, J. A., Owen, J., & Bieschke, K. J. (2015). Therapist differences in symptom change with racial/ethnic minority clients. Psychotherapy, 52(3), 308-314.

There is ample research showing that therapists differ in their outcomes with clients. Some therapists consistently have better outcomes than others, and some therapists consistently have worse outcomes. One study estimated that as many as 5% of therapists are reliably harmful, with many more being neither harmful or helpful. Fortunately, there is evidence that some “super-shrink” therapists are reliably helpful. There is also research showing the existence of ethnic disparities in mental health problems and their treatment. The minority stress theory suggests that members of cultural minority groups face problems like discrimination, oppression, and prejudice that affect their mental health. When racial/ethnic minority (REM) individuals do experience mental health problems they may be reluctant to seek help from a therapist of European descent. This may be due to cultural mistrust or doubts about cultural sensitivity. Recently, writers have been discussing the importance of therapist cultural competence in treating REM clients. In this study by Hayes and colleagues, the authors looked at 36 therapists and 228 clients. Clients were students at a university counselling centre seen an average of 5.42 times, and about 65% of clients were of European descent. The therapists were in training in a doctoral counseling program, and they each treated at least 4 clients: two REM and two non-REM clients. Since each therapist had both REM and non-REM clients, the authors were able to estimate the effect of the therapist on client outcomes, and also to see if therapists differed in their ability to treat REM and non-REM clients. In this study, cultural competence was defined as differences in client outcomes within each therapist depending on client culture or race. Overall, about 39% of clients achieved reliable positive change in general symptom distress. Almost 9% of the variance in client outcome was attributable to therapists. Further, the client’s race/ethnicity explained 19% of the variance in treatment outcome attributed to therapists. In other words, which therapist a client saw had moderate impact on whether the client improved, and this was partly due to the client’s REM status.

Practice Implications

In this sample of training therapists and student clients, some therapists were more effective than others, and some of this difference was due to the client’s racial/ethnic heritage. The results suggest that therapists’ cultural competence is a component of overall competence. The findings speak to the need for multicultural training for therapists. Some authors discuss the importance of cultural humility among psychotherapists, which is an interpersonal stance that is other-oriented rather than self-focused, and characterized by respect and lack of superiority toward a client’s cultural background and experience. Client perception of their therapist as culturally humble will improve the therapeutic alliance and the client’s outcomes.

Author email: jxh34@psu.edu

May 2019

Therapist Empathy and Client Outcome

Elliott, R., Bohart, A. C., Watson, J. C., & Murphy, D. (2018). Therapist empathy and client outcome: An updated meta-analysis. Psychotherapy, 55(4), 399-410.

As early as the 1940s Carl Rogers spoke about the key role played by therapist empathy in determining client outcomes. Many clinical writers consider empathy as a therapist ability or trait that enables one to understand the other person’s feelings, perspectives, or motivations. Rogers defined empathy as the therapist’s sensitive ability and willingness to understand the client’s thoughts, feelings, and struggles from the client’s point of view. Three main modes of empathy include: rapport in which the therapist shows deliberate compassion for the client, communicative attunement in which the therapist stays attuned to the client’s moment to moment experience, and person empathy in which the therapist makes a sustained effort to understand the historical context of the client’s experience. There is recent neuroscience research showing specific brain processes at work when one automatically or unconsciously mirrors others’ experiences, when one deliberately tries to take an other’s perspective, and when one vicariously experiences others’ distress. Empathy is similar to unconditional positive regard, but empathy further involves the immersion of the therapist in the client’s experience. In this meta-analysis, Elliott and colleagues were particularly interested in the association between therapist empathy and client outcomes. The meta-analytic review included 82 independent samples and 6,138 clients. The overall study-level weighted correlation was medium-sized, r = .28 (95%CI: .22, .33), which is equivalent to a d = .58. In other words, therapist empathy accounted for approximately 9% of client outcome variance, which is similar to the effects of the therapeutic alliance and larger than the effects of specific treatment methods. Measuring therapist empathy by the client resulted in the largest association with outcomes, whereas measuring therapist empathy from the therapist’s perspective had the smallest association with outcomes. There were no differences between therapeutic approaches when it came to the empathy-outcome association.

Practice Implications

Psychotherapists have known for decades that empathic attunement with a client’s internal experiences is a key factor to clients getting better. Effective therapists of any orientation understand their clients’ goals and tasks, their moment to moment experiences in session, and their unspoken nuances. This requires therapists to continually adjust their assumptions and understanding. Client outcomes depend to some extent on how well the therapist receives, listens, respects, attends to, and responds to what the client experiences in therapy. Regularly assessing and focusing on the client’s experience of therapist empathy (not the therapist’s assessment of their own empathy) is most useful to help therapists modify their interpersonal stances and improve their clients’ outcomes.

Author email: robert.elliott@strath.ac.uk
Positive Regard and Psychotherapy Outcome

Farber, B. A., Suzuki, J. Y., & Lynch, D. A. (2018). Positive regard and psychotherapy outcome: A meta-analytic review. Psychotherapy, 55(4), 411-423.

A concept similar to therapist empathy is the notion of therapist unconditional positive regard. Carl Rogers argued that the three factors of positive regard, empathy, and genuineness were the necessary and sufficient conditions for therapeutic change. Rogers’ pioneering work paved the way for the view that the relationship in psychotherapy was the critical factor in determining clients’ positive outcomes. Rogers defined unconditional positive regard as: the extent to which the therapist finds him- or herself experiencing a warm acceptance of each aspect of the client’s experience. It means caring for and prizing the client as a separate person. Other similar terms include: acceptance, non-possessive warmth, and therapist affirmation. Whereas empathy involves immersing oneself in the client’s internal frame of reference in order to truly understand the client’s experience, positive regard refers to unconditional acceptance of the attitudes held by the client and an expression by the therapist of the client’s inherent worthiness as a person. Often, empathy and positive regard go hand in hand, but not always. It is possible to empathize with a client’s pain (loss of a loved one), but not be accepting of aspects of the client’s behavior (coldness toward and disengagement from others). In this meta-analysis, Farber and colleagues reviewed 64 studies comprising 3,528 participants. The aggregated effect size of the association between positive regard and outcomes was small, g = .36, but statistically significant (95% CI: 0.28, 0.44). One of the key moderators of this association was severity of client psychopathology, such that positive regard had a significantly greater effect for clients with lower severity of psychopathology.

Practice Implications

The authors concluded that affirming clients may serve many important functions. Positive regard may strengthen a client’s sense of self and agency, and the belief in their ability to engage in a positive relationship. Positive regard likely reinforces clients’ engagement in therapy, increases self-disclosures, and facilitates the therapeutic alliance. Unconditional positive regard requires therapists to express positive feelings and attitudes to clients. This means communicating a caring, respectful positive attitude that affirms a client’s sense of self worth.

Author email: farber@tc.edu
Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy for Psychiatric Conditions

Lilliengren, P., Johansson, R., Lindqvist, K., Mechler, J., & Andersson, G. (2016). Efficacy of experiential dynamic therapy for psychiatric conditions: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Psychotherapy, 53(1), 90-104.

There is growing research support for the efficacy of short-term psychodynamic psychotherapies to treat common mental health problems. A subtype of short-term psychodynamic psychotherapies is called experiential-dynamic therapy (EDT), which goes by a number of different names such as Fosha’s accelerated experiential-dynamic psychotherapy, and McCullough’s affect phobia therapy. A fundamental assumption of EDT is that conditions like depression, anxiety and personality disorders are by-products of an individual’s attempts to regulate strong emotions associated with adverse experiences in attachment relationships during childhood. When the attachment system and associated affects are re-awakened in current relationships, the individual may engage in maladaptive coping that leads to difficulties in relationships. While EDTs may focus on helping patients to understand how their attachment difficulties lead to inhibitory affects and maladaptive defenses, the treatment favors interventions that facilitate direct experience of underlying emotions in the here and now of the therapy. In this meta-analysis, Lilliengren and colleagues reviewed 28 studies with 1,782 adult patients who had a mood, anxiety, personality, or mixed disorder. Compared to inactive controls, EDT showed a moderate and significant effect at post-treatment (range: d = .39 to .65) and at follow-up assessments (range: d = .26 to .62), with largest effects for depression and anxiety. When researchers compared EDT to cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) in five studies, there were no significant effects at post-treatment (d = .02, 95% CI: -.24, .28) or follow-up (d = .07, 95% CI: -.22, .36). The average quality of EDT studies was good. In fact, studies with larger samples, that used blind randomization and assessments, and appropriate statistical tests showed larger effects for EDT. Drop-out rates for EDT (16.3%) were similar to other treatments.

Practice Implications

Experiential-dynamic therapy (EDT), which is a variant of short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy, was more effective than no-treatment and just as effective as evidence-based treatments like CBT. The findings are similar to those reported in many comparative outcome studies in which any bona-fide psychotherapy is effective for many disorders. The average quality of the EDT studies was quite good, suggesting that the findings were reliable and valid, and perhaps underestimating the true effects of EDT.

Author email: peter.lilliengren@psychology.su.se

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June 2019

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May 2019

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Psychotherapy Practice Research Network (PPRNet)