Abstract

Psychotherapist multicultural competence has been given increasing attention in the field of psychology since the 1970s. However, individuals and communities who are Black, Indigenous, or People of Color are still less likely to attend psychotherapy and often drop out earlier than White clients. These trends highlight the importance of the ongoing research on therapist multicultural competence. There are many multicultural competencies, however, the current study focuses on therapist cultural humility. Specifically, we systematically searched all the current research on the association between cultural humility and client experiences and outcomes in therapy. Our literature search yielded eight studies that met our search criteria. Next, we synthesized the data by conducting a meta-analysis using the metric of Pearson's r as the effect size. In addition, we aggregated average item-level therapist scores and the reliability coefficient of the Cultural Humility Scale (CHS; Hook et al., 2013). We found a moderate positive correlation between client perceptions of therapist cultural humility and client experiences and outcomes in therapy of r = .39 (p < .05). Furthermore, we found the average item-level score to be 3.86 out of a maximum score of 5 (SE =.086), which corresponds with the rating of "mildly agree," indicating that clients typically perceive therapists to demonstrate cultural humility. Finally, we found CHS to be reliable across studies, with an average alpha coefficient of .91. These finding suggest that cultural humility is an important aspect of the psychotherapeutic relationship. Furthermore, they suggest that the CHS is a reliable measure and should continue to be used in future studies. Finally, because our review yielded only eight studies, more research on this relationship is needed.

Degree

PhD

College and Department

David O. McKay School of Education; Counseling Psychology and Special Education

Rights

https://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/

Date Submitted

2022-08-04

Document Type

Dissertation

Handle

http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/etd12459

Keywords

cultural humility, Cultural Humility Scale, BIPOC, mental health professionals, psychotherapy, therapy outcomes, therapy process, therapy experiences

Language

english

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