Cross-Cultural Responsiveness & Systemic Therapy

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xvii

   PDF

2. Social Justice Implications for MFT: The Need for Cross-Cultural Responsiveness

   • Iman Dadras, Manijeh Daneshpour

   Pages 1-20

3. Before Cultural Competence

   • Cheryl E. Matias

   Pages 21-39

4. Evidence-Based Practices and Cultural Responsiveness

   • Robert Allan

   Pages 41-52

5. Cross-Culturally Responsive Training of Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy: International Experiences

   • Senem Zeytinoglu-Saydam

   Pages 53-67

6. Cultural Responsiveness in Family Therapy: Integrative and Common Factors Lens

   • Shruti Singh Poulsen

   Pages 69-77

7. Client-Centered Advocacy in Education and Clinical Training from the Supervisees’ Perspective

   • Nicole Sabatini Gutierrez, Rajeswari Natrajan-Tyagi

   Pages 79-100

8. Training and Supervision Across Disciplines to Engage in Cross-Cultural Competence and Responsiveness: Counseling and Family Therapy

   • Diane Estrada

   Pages 101-117

9. Cross-Cultural Relevance of Systemic Family Therapy and Globally Responsive Cross-Cultural Training: An Indian Case Study

   • Rajeswari Natrajan-Tyagi

   Pages 119-134

10. Couple and Family Therapy Training in the Context of Turkey

    • Nilufer Kafescioglu, Yudum Akyıl

    Pages 135-148

11. The Future of MFT: Clinical Implications of Cross-Cultural Responsiveness and Social Justice Lens to the Field

    • Shruti Singh Poulsen, Robert Allan

    Pages 149-155

12. Back Matter

    Pages 157-161

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This progressive volume takes a nuanced approach to understanding systemic therapies with diverse client populations, leading to culturally responsive therapy. Synthesizing diverse streams of psychology, philosophy, and social theory, chapters focus on cutting-edge issues in couple and family therapy including social justice, power, and privilege in therapy, the role of evidence-based practices, and integrative approaches to couple and family therapy. Each contributor is either a recent immigrant to the U.S. or a person of color, bringing unique personal lenses and experiences to the exploration of the topics. And coverage also makes clear what white therapists need to learn—and unlearn—before they can work responsively with clients of color.  


This practice-building reference: 

• Combines research with applied knowledge in its treatment of topics.
  
• Adapts systemic therapy practice into today’s culturally diverse contexts.
  
• Explores themes of power, privilege, and social justice in each chapter.
  
• Presents multiculturalism in terms of therapeutic responsiveness.
  
• Critiques approaches to systemic therapy with immigrant clients and clients of color.
  
• Challenges readers to access deeper concepts and realities of self, other, and trust.
  

Updating familiar takes on cultural competence with both local and global implications, Cross-Cultural Responsiveness and Systemic Therapy describes numerous opportunities for and challenges to couple and family therapy, as well as cross-disciplinary opportunities for incorporating social justice and cultural responsiveness in training and supervision of couple and family therapists.

• Family and couple therapy
• Integrative approaches to MFT
• Interethnic issues
• Intersectionality
• Empirically based treatments

• University of Colorado Denver, Denver, USA

  Shruti Singh Poulsen, Robert Allan

Shruti Singh Poulsen is an Associate Professor in the Counseling Program at the University of Colorado Denver. She teaches and supervises Master’s level students primarily in the couple and family therapy track. She has been clinically active in couple and family therapy and supervision for over 20 years. She received her doctorate from the MFT Program at Purdue University in 2003. She has been faculty at the University of Colorado Denver for over seven years. At CU Denver, she has taught Family Therapy Theories, Family Therapy Techniques, Counseling Couples, Introduction to Sex Therapy, Internship, and Practicum; most recently she taught an undergraduate course (Skills for Helping Professions) in Human Development & Family Relations, a new undergraduate program in her school. Her research, teaching and service all focus on areas of multiculturalism; specifically access to good mental health care to diverse populations, and training culturally responsive and competent therapists and counselors. She is also interested in empirically based treatments and their utility with diverse client populations; to this effort, she has obtained advanced training in EFT, Gottman Level I training, and training in IBCT. The majority of her scholarly work (publications & presentations) focuses on clinical work with diverse client populations with specific focus on areas such as immigration, interracial and diverse couples, cultural implications for training and supervision. 




Robert Allan is an Assistant Professor in the Counseling Program at the University of Colorado Denver. He teaches and supervises Master’s level students primarily in the couple and family therapy track. He came to working with people more directly in therapy after twenty years of community-based development work and developed a keen understanding of the impact of various stressors and community factors that can affect our lives. He has been helping couples, individuals and families improve their most important relationships, health, and well-being for over 25 years now. As his clinical practice evolved, he was drawn to systemic approaches to working with people. This was a natural evolution from his community work where they drew on a range of health promotion and population health models for working with health challenges. He received a Master’s in counseling from Acadia University, an Interdisciplinary Ph.D. from Dalhousie University (Canada), and did a post-grad route to become an MFT and approved AAMFT supervisor.

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