Cultural Competence in Clinical Psychology Training: A Qualitative Investigation of Student and Academic Experiences

Abstract

Objective

Recent years have seen a marked increase in attention to cultural competence in clinical psychology practice in Australia. While the body of literature on the need for cultural competence is expanding, this is the first study that analyses how cross‐cultural training and practice is experienced and related to standardised models of cultural competence.

Method

Twelve participants (8 students and 4 academics; 9 females and 3 males, ages 22–57) in two Australian universities were interviewed on their experiences with cultural competence during clinical psychology training. Each semi‐structured interview took about 30 min and focused on identifying the training experiences and needs for cultural competence.

Results

Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of the transcripts delivered three master themes: experiences of culture, strategies for culturally competent practice, and experiences of cultural competence development.

Conclusions

Students and academics experienced a “western” bias in training, and consequently adopted a variety of strategies to adapt their practice with culturally non‐western clients. These findings draw attention to the need for structured cultural competence development in professional training programs.

Key words:

• clinical psychology education
• cultural competence
• cultural diversity
• Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA)
• professional psychology

Acknowledgements

Our sincere thanks to all participants who shared their experiences and dedicated their time, all university faculty who facilitated this research, and to Associate Professor Anita Lundberg, Dr Nenna Ndukwe, Dr Joanna Barlas, and Dr Jane Tuomola for their contributions. Lennie Geerlings is an interdisciplinary researcher focusing on the cultural effects of globalisation of knowledge. This comparative research on the training and practice of clinical psychology was supervised by Dr Claire Thompson, Associate Professor in clinical psychology at James Cook University Singapore and Research Fellow at The Cairnmillar Institute, Melbourne, and conducted in collaboration with Dr Ruth Bouma from The University of Queensland, Brisbane, and Professor Russell Hawkins from James Cook University, Cairns.