Cultural Competency in Therapy: Creating Space for Your Identity, Values, and Lived Experience
Culturally competent mental health care begins with recognizing that we do not experience the world in isolation. Our cultural identities, family systems, communities, beliefs, values, and lived experiences all influence how we understand ourselves, navigate relationships, cope with challenges, and make sense of the world around us. These aspects of our identities can shape our mental health in ways that deserve space and consideration in therapy.
Cultural competency in therapy refers to a therapist’s ongoing effort to understand, respect, and respond to the cultural backgrounds and experiences that shape each client’s life. This includes recognizing how culture, race, ethnicity, religion, spirituality, gender identity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, family traditions, and community experiences may influence an individual's mental health and access to support.
For me, practicing cultural competency is not about assuming I understand someone because I have learned about their culture or identity. Instead, it is about approaching each person with curiosity, humility, and a willingness to learn from their individual experiences.
Practicing Curiosity Rather Than Making Assumptions
One of the ways I practice cultural competency is by remaining curious about the experiences that shape my clients’ perspectives. Rather than making assumptions about what something means to a person, I ask questions and invite them to share their understanding.
For example, family expectations, independence, emotional expression, boundaries, and relationships can hold very different meanings depending on someone's upbringing, cultural background, and personal values. What one person experiences as support may feel restrictive to another. What one person considers an important family obligation may create conflict for someone navigating different expectations.
These differences are not necessarily right or wrong. They are opportunities to better understand the context of a person's experiences and how those experiences influence their emotional well-being.
Curiosity allows therapy to become a collaborative process in which clients are the experts on their own lived experiences, while I bring therapeutic knowledge, reflection, and support.
Using Your Language to Understand Your Experience
Language matters in therapy. The words we use to describe our emotions, relationships, identities, and experiences often carry personal and cultural meaning.
I make an effort to use my clients' language when discussing their experiences rather than imposing labels or terminology that may not feel accurate to them. This means paying attention to how clients describe their relationships, family dynamics, emotional experiences, and sense of identity.
I also recognize that certain words may have different meanings across families, communities, and cultures. Taking the time to understand what a word or experience means to a client can help us move beyond assumptions and develop a more meaningful understanding of concerns.
This approach creates room for clients to define their own experiences rather than feeling the need to translate themselves into language they believe a therapist will understand.
Exploring Values, Beliefs, Cultural Identity, and Community
Our beliefs and values often develop through our relationships, family systems, cultural traditions, and communities. These influences can provide a sense of belonging, connection, resilience, and purpose. They can also create tension when our personal needs or identities differ from the expectations around us.
In therapy, I may ask questions about what matters most to a client, how their family or community approaches certain experiences, what traditions or beliefs are meaningful to them, and how they understand their place within their communities.
These conversations can help us explore questions such as:
How have your family or cultural expectations shaped the way you understand success, relationships, or independence?
What beliefs or traditions bring you a sense of connection, comfort, or meaning?
Are there expectations you feel pressure to uphold, even when they do not align with your personal needs?
How do your identities and community experiences influence your sense of belonging?
Are there aspects of your identity or lived experience that you feel others misunderstand?
What parts of your cultural background would you like to preserve, reconnect with, question, or understand differently?
These questions are not intended to challenge or dismiss a client's cultural values. They are to create space for exploring how those values influence their life and whether the ways they navigate them continue to support their well-being.
Recognizing the Impact of Culture on Mental Health
Mental health does not exist separately from the world we live in. Experiences of discrimination, marginalization, social exclusion, economic hardship, family expectations, and barriers to care can contribute to stress, anxiety, depression, and feelings of disconnection.
At the same time, cultural traditions, spirituality, community relationships, shared experiences, and collective support can be important sources of strength and healing.
Considering these influences allows us to understand a client's challenges within a broader context rather than viewing their distress only as an individual problem.
It also helps us recognize that coping strategies, relationship patterns, and emotional responses often develop for understandable reasons within a person's environment and experiences.
Culturally responsive care invites us to consider not only what a client is experiencing, but also what they have navigated, what resources they have access to, and what support looks like within their world.
Inviting Clients to Teach Me About Their Experiences
An important part of cultural competency is recognizing that learning is ongoing. No therapist can know everything about a culture, identity, community, or lived experience. Even when we have knowledge of aspects of our client's identities, each experience contains unique parts worth sharing.
I want clients to know that they are welcome to share information about their backgrounds, values, identities, and communities that may help me better understand them. If something is important to how they experience the world, it is important enough to bring into our conversations.
Clients do not need to assume that I already understand a cultural reference, family tradition, community experience, or identity-related concern. They can clarify what something means to them, correct my assumptions, or let me know when I have missed an important part of their experience.
This also means being willing to reflect on my own assumptions, acknowledge when I do not know something, and remain open to feedback. Cultural competency is not a destination that a therapist reaches once and for all. It is an ongoing practice of learning, reflection, accountability, and adapting care to the person in front of me.
Your Culture and Identity Belong in Therapy
Your cultural background, family relationships, beliefs, traditions, community experiences, and sense of belonging may all be relevant to understanding what brings you to therapy.
You also get to decide what you feel comfortable sharing and when. Cultural exploration is not about asking clients to disclose more than they want to or making their identity the focus of every session. It is about creating space for these experiences when they matter to the client and their therapeutic goals.
My approach is grounded in the belief that understanding someone requires more than understanding their symptoms. It requires an interest in the person as a whole, including the experiences and relationships that have shaped who they are.
Therapy can be a space where you can bring your full self, explore the parts of your identity that matter to you, and feel that your experiences are met with curiosity, respect, and care.
If you are considering therapy, I encourage you to think about what you would want a therapist to understand about your background, values, identity, or community. These are meaningful parts of your story, and they not only deserve space in your mental health care, they also impact progress.
