Why Culture Matters In Therapy
What do you think when you hear the word "culture?"
Culture, by definition, is the norm, beliefs, traditions and values that make up an individual. Culture can be largely dependent about where your family is from. When you hear the word culture, there's a good chance you probably think about whether they are Asian, Middle Eastern, Caucasian, Hispanic, etc.... and what flavor of the specific cultural group (specifically are Indian, Bengali, Pakistani, Chinese, Taiwanese, Irish, Puerto Rican, Brazilian, etc.)
Culture makes a huge part of who we are and how we present to the world. Our culture began before we even came into this world. Your biological mother likely approached parts of her pregnancy differently depending on her cultural beliefs. We are culture and we are nothing without culture.
Culture can be anything from what we eat, how we dress, how we talk, what music we listen to, to our beliefs, superstitions, our values and choices we make. So why would we think for one second that culture isn't an important aspect of therapy?
I remember being one of the only two Indians in my graduate school program. A graduate school program that I'll say was not very culturally diverse. I remembered when I graduated from my graduate school program, I was one of the small percentage of South Asian therapists in the nation. (I don't remember the number and don't want to misquote). That felt off to me. I will say there was a feeling of pride being one of the Asian therapists out there.
It's important to feel seen, heard, valued and respected. Not just in the therapy space, but everywhere but for the sake of this post--it's important to feel seen, heard, valued, respected, all the good things in the therapy space. I also want to clarify that culture being an important part of therapy doesn't necessarily mean needing to have a therapist who is from a similar or the same culture as you. For some actually, having a therapist from the same culture may not be the most helpful.
But for many, having a therapist from the same or similar culture means they may just get it. It means potentially not having to explain things or similar or overlapping lived experiences. It can mean feeling seen, heard, valued and respected. (I'll go more in detail on this on a future post).
Culture is an important piece of therapy because culture makes us who we are. It's not the only piece of the puzzle but it's a huge piece of the puzzle. Whether you are a therapy seeker or a therapy provider, please let's not minimize or disregard the important power of culture in mental health.
If you are looking for a culturally informed therapist and you are in NJ or SC, please contact me using the contact form on my website!