Enactments of Cultural and Professional Beliefs, Values, and Biases in Therapy: Negotiating Difference, Power, and the Therapeutic Relationship Across Cultures

Presenter: Eunjung Lee, PhD

Drawing on empirical research on cross-cultural psychotherapy processes, this presentation examines moment-to-moment therapeutic interactions in which therapists' often unmarked cultural, professional, and sociopolitical assumptions, norms, and values are enacted. Particular attention will be given to how these interactions shape key therapeutic processes, including the therapeutic relationship, client self-disclosure, engagement, and, ultimately, treatment outcomes.

The presentation features transcripts from actual videotaped psychotherapy sessions conducted in outpatient community mental health and family counselling settings, as well as brief segments from publicly available psychotherapy videos. These examples highlight seemingly ordinary clinical interactions, such as supporting parents with child-rearing challenges, conducting mental status assessments, working with clients experiencing depression, and assisting with disability benefit applications.

Through detailed linguistic and social interactional analyses, the presentation illuminates how routine therapeutic exchanges can inadvertently reinforce, negotiate, or challenge the implicit values, assumptions, and biases of both therapists and clients. From a relational perspective, participants will be invited to consider how unspoken cultural expectations, professional norms, and power dynamics become enacted within the therapeutic encounter and influence engagement and meaning-making between therapist and client.

The presentation will encourage critical reflection on participants' own clinical practice and offer opportunities to explore ways of collaboratively negotiating cultural differences and power imbalances in therapy. Practical guidelines and discourse-based strategies for fostering therapeutic engagement across cultural differences will be presented and critically discussed. The discussion will also consider how therapists' implicit cultural and professional assumptions may shape relational dynamics within therapy and influence what becomes speakable, unspeakable, or therapeutically actionable in clinical work.