Psychoanalytic Psychologists' Conceptualizations of Cultural Competence in Psychotherapy

While there has been increasing attention directed toward sociocultural issues in psychoanalytic scholarship and recent efforts to integrate cultural competence as a core emphasis in psychoanalytic theory and practice, there have been no empirical investigations of how cultural competence is conceptualized by psychoanalytic psychologists. The present study aimed to examine how psychoanalytic psychologists approach cultural competence in psychotherapy. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 20 psychologists (10 men and 10 women; 12 White, 4 Latino/a, 2 African American, 1 Asian American, 1 Multiracial) with at least 10 years of experience in providing psychoanalytic psychotherapy with clients from socially and culturally diverse backgrounds. Data was analyzed using conventional content analysis (Hsieh & Shannon, 2005), revealing 4 broad domains and several themes within each of these domains. The 4 broad domains included (a) Complexity of identity and affect, (b) Conscious and unconscious dynamics between therapist and client, (c) Social oppression and traumatic stress, and (d) Therapist's ongoing commitment to self-reflection. The findings support a process-oriented conceptualization of cultural competence. The implications of the findings for research, training, and practice are discussed.