Silhouettes of peopleHow many times have you found yourself in the situation of being worried or anxious about sharing a part of yourself with others? Too often we’re forced to choose one part of ourselves that we want to share over another part that might be equally as important. This can be extreme or subtle.

For example, teenagers who are both gay and Christian might feel like they can’t be both at the same time. These conflicting identities create a bind for them. At church the young person might be given a very direct message that being gay is wrong. For these teens they know that if they want to celebrate their Christianity with their community, they need to pretend to be straight. Gay community can be equally as complicated. After years of oppression from churches many people who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, or queer have struggled with Christianity. In this situation these teens might not feel able to express their strong religious beliefs within the gay community. For them, there is no place where they feel totally accepted, totally themselves. This example of split identities is very clear; however, sometimes the ways in which we’re forced to hide parts of ourselves is much more subtle.

In my work, I frequently find men who are struggling with a conflict of identity around gender and gender role. What happens when a straight man has interests or beliefs that are labeled as feminine? For example, if he doesn’t want to fight or he prefers conversations with women over watching sports with men. In our culture there is an assumption that men are going to act masculine. Often men are forced to hide parts of their identity that are not seen as masculine enough. This identity bind is much more subtle but still painful.

We face situations like these every day. Our identities have many facets including our ethnicity, race, religion, and sexual orientation as well as other ways we define ourselves, such as pacifist, good listener, or caregiver. Each of us has parts of our identities that we feel comfortable sharing with strangers and other parts that we only want to share with friends. There are things we are proud of and things we are ashamed of. Our identities are multidimensional; they have many layers and many meanings. Sometimes these identities are hierarchical, and one identity may be more important than all of the others. Understanding what our own multidimensional identity looks like can help us in those moments when not sharing our full self makes us feel invisible.

How do you introduce yourself to someone new after you tell them your name? In the United States we often use our professions to describe who we are to other people, “I’m a teacher/lawyer/electrician/therapist/writer.” As a culture we put a lot of value on employment and jobs, so much that sometimes our jobs become our identities. If you could describe yourself to a stranger as something other than your occupation, what would it be? Maybe it would be a description of an important relationship, such as “I’m a dad/mom/sister/uncle/grandma.” These are only two ways in which we might identify ourselves.

Take a moment and list the first five of your identities that you can think of. What made the top five? Are you surprised at any of the ones that are there? Are there any identities missing that you wish were on that top five list? And are there any identities on your list that you have felt you need to hide?

Being proud of ourselves is often much harder than it sounds. We live in a world filled with expectations, some spoken and some unspoken. But just because a part of our identity can’t be seen does not mean that it’s not there. It does mean that you might have to work a little bit harder to give it it’s time in the sun—to find a safe space to share the parts of you that feel invisible. Finding these spaces is an important step towards integrating our identities and feeling whole.

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Religion has been shown to be a stabilizing factor for mental well-being. Research has demonstrated that people who have religious beliefs tend to have better mental health, physical health, and more satisfying relationships than those who do not have any religious beliefs. Religious individuals who seek therapy may look specifically for a therapist who is of their religious affiliation; however, many choose to work with secular therapists in order to receive an unbiased assessment of their psychological state. Because of this, it is important to understand how religious clients view the treatment they receive from secular therapists. Carrie L. Cragun of the Department of Educational and Counseling Psychology at the University of Albany in New York was curious to find out if religious individuals held negative or positive opinions of secular therapists and the treatment they provided.

Cragun recently reviewed assessments from 11 Christian individuals who had received therapy from secular therapists. She evaluated whether the clients reported their experiences as positive or negative and how religion influenced their reports. Cragun found that the majority of the clients reported positive experiences from the secular therapists. This was most often the result of working with a therapist who was open and willing to discuss religious beliefs. The therapists who were judgmental and less inclusive with respect to faith were seen as providing a negative therapeutic experience. However, when therapists explained that they were unqualified to discuss their client’s religion, the clients respected that response and still rated the overall experience as positive.

Religious beliefs play a significant role in the lives of many clients. This study demonstrates that many individuals do not feel comfortable initiating discussions about this important topic to therapists. “Results suggest that creating safety for clients to discuss their religious identity and beliefs could begin on intake,” Cragun said. “Therapists could ask about clients’ coping methods or specifically about religion and spirituality.” Providing an environment in which a client feels fully accepted regardless of religious devotion or ambiguity will set the stage for full disclosure in other areas. Cragun believes that the best place for this to start is when students are studying to become therapists. Learning about the importance of multicultural issues and how to integrate these issues into therapy will allow therapists to be more inclusive of clients from every ethnic and religious background.

Reference:
Cragun, C. L., Friedlander, M. L. (2012). Experiences of Christian clients in secular psychotherapy: A mixed-methods investigation. Journal of Counseling Psychology. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1037/a0028283

Racism and prejudice are issues that are at the forefront of social concern today. Ethnic differences are causing riots, uprisings, and loss of life in nations throughout the world, including our own. Classic conditioning is a theory that suggests that individuals learn racism and prejudice through exposure to events by either experiencing them personally or observing them. Once a perspective is formed, it can be reinforced through continual verbal, visual, or actual cues. For instance, a person who has a fearful encounter with someone from another race may later see others exhibit fear, thus reinforcing their opinion and prejudice of that race. Likewise, this effect can be reversed if this same person goes on to experience positive situations with people of the other race. Either way, discrimination and prejudice are learned at a very young age and unless it is reversed, can lead to significant stress and anxiety. People who are discriminated against based on their religion, race, or sexual preference often face obstacles in many areas of their lives. Finding a career, a job, or school can be a challenging experience for people who are faced with prejudice and discrimination.

To identify how different ethnic groups learn racism and how it is perceived across different races, David Rollock, Associate Professor of the Department of Psychological Sciences at Purdue University, recently conducted a study involving participants who were African American, White, Asian, and Hispanic. The 282 participants ranged in age from 17 to 61 years old and responded to a questionnaire that asked them about their experiences with prejudice. They were instructed to report their emotional responses to various interracial encounters, positive and negative.

Rollock discovered that the White participants had the strongest negative emotions as a result of bad interracial experiences, while other races experienced lower levels of negativity. The findings also showed that Whites reported fear as the most common response to negative interracial experiences, regardless of whether they were verbal, observed, or physically experienced. Whites and African Americans had similar levels of anxiety, but these levels were much lower than levels found in the Asian and Hispanic participants.

Although all the participants exhibited anger as a result of interracial experiences, it was minimal. Rollock also found that some of the participants had positive interracial experiences that decreased their prejudice, but the effect was minimal. Rollock added, “Interestingly, people from different ethnic and sex groups did not appear to ‘learn’ their adverse race-elicited emotions in different ways, suggesting that strategies that build or reduce adverse race-elicited emotion for members of one group should be similarly effective with other groups.” This finding could help clinicians who are dealing with victims and perpetrators of racial intolerance. By understanding that the mechanism that leads to prejudice and racism is similar across all races, mental health professionals should be able to help most people overcome these obstacles, regardless of their ethnicity.

Reference:
Conger, A. J., Dygdon, J. A., Rollock, D. (2012). Conditioned emotional responses in racial prejudice. Ethnic & Racial Studies 35.2, 298-319.

Multiracial Hands Making a CircleA dear friend was telling me the other day about a bumper sticker that had symbols of some of the world’s religions and writing that said “coexist.” What a shame that as we approach the start of the Easter/Passover season, in which many of the world’s believers participate, people are far from accepting the right of others to worship as they see fit without judgment or condemnation. Why is it that many people feel that their religion is the one true way to believe in and connect to God?

I can only speculate from my perspective as psychotherapist and Yoruba/Lucumi priest. Here are some random guesses.

So what can we as individuals do to combat this worldwide pathologic response of religious fundamentalists who are ironically supposed to have a love of God and God’s children?

I’m sure my readers will have something to say about what I have written in this article. Please feel free to offer your own list of examples of reasons why it is so hard for many to coexist and what solutions are possible.

And if you’re a practitioner, have a joyful Easter-Passover holiday.

Married couples communicate in a myriad of ways throughout the world. Different countries have cultural norms that people conform to, and these norms directly influence how individuals in intimate relationships communicate. These norms also affect other behaviors and attitudes that significantly affect relationships. Chinese and American cultures are quite different, and therefore, it is assumed that couples from China might have different communication styles and beliefs about their relationships than American couples. These diverse views are important to understand in order to better address and treat the issues that plague Chinese couples in America.

To find out how attitudes and communication patterns shape the overall satisfaction of Chinese couples compared to American couples, Hannah C. Williamson of the Department of Psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles, recently led a study evaluating these factors in a sample of 41 Chinese newlywed couples and 50 newlywed couples from America. Taking into consideration that American couples are more inclined to conform to individualistic ideals and value intimacy and personal and romantic expression over the social expectations of extended family harmony and approval, as Chinese culture dictates, Williamson expected that the American couples would be more positive than the Chinese couples. This finding was not realized. Instead, all of the couples showed equal levels of positivity.

However, the results did show that the Chinese wives held more overall negative attitudes toward their husbands than the American wives. This directly impacted the levels of relationship satisfaction in the Chinese participants. Williamson believes this could be due to the collective nature of the Chinese culture, which dissuades people from directly expressing their feelings to intimate partners and family members. This nondisclosure of emotional experiences can hamper open communication and cause partners to hold on to resentments, thus negatively affecting the relationship. In contrast, American couples showed higher levels of relationship satisfaction, perhaps due to the more expressive and individualistic behaviors encouraged in American culture. Williamson believes these findings can help clinicians better understand the factors inhibiting communication in couples whose values differ with those of most Americans. She added, “The culture in which a relationship occurs therefore may be an important factor in determining how individuals behave toward their spouse and how they assign meaning to this behavior.”

Reference:
Williamson, H. C., Ju, X., Bradbury, T. N., Karney, B. R., Fang, X., & Liu, X. (2012). Communication behavior and relationship satisfaction among American and Chinese newlywed couples. Journal of Family Psychology. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1037/a0027752

People who are discriminated against can suffer significant negative consequences. General well-being, self-esteem, self-worth, and social relations can be severely impacted as a result of discrimination. But recognizing exactly how perceived discrimination affects an individual is much less understood. Previous research has suggested that perceived discrimination can lead to mental health problems such as increased stress, depression, and anxiety. In an effort to better comprehend the exact relationship between perceived discrimination and psychological health, Que-Lam Huynh of the Department of Psychology at California State University recently led a study that examined the effects of this type of prejudice on Latin American participants.

Past studies have demonstrated that African-Americans report varying levels of stress relative to the context of the discrimination they perceive. Overall, research indicates that discrimination in professional settings is more stressful than discrimination in social settings. Additionally, studies have provided mixed results on how the effects of discrimination vary based on severity and frequency. To clarify these influences, Huynh analyzed data from 168 Latino individuals, who reported the severity and frequency of perceived discrimination. The study also evaluated the distress levels, specifically anxiety and depression, of the participants.

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The findings revealed that the higher the frequency of perceived discrimination, the higher the levels of reported anxiety and depression in the participants. The results also showed that participants who did experience extreme discrimination, although infrequently, were equally adversely affected. The research team was able to determine that, overall, the frequency of less stressful discrimination was more detrimental to the participants’ psychological well-being than less frequent high-stress discrimination experiences. Huynh believes these findings will help clinicians treating cultural minorities who struggle with mental health problems resulting from perceived discrimination. Huynh said, “Thus, it is important for researchers to examine both perceived frequency and perceived stressfulness, as the interplay between these two dimensions of discrimination has meaningful relations with psychological adjustment.”

Reference:
Huynh, Q.-L., Devos, T., Dunbar, C. M. The Psychological Costs of Painless but Recurring Experiences of Racial Discrimination. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology 18.1 (2012): 26-34. Print.

Working Alliance (WA) describes the relationship between a client and therapist and the underlying bond formed during the therapeutic process.  The majority of researchers believe that a strong WA is essential to a positive treatment outcome. Ethnic and racial differences between clients and therapists can impair the working alliance and therefore influence the outcome as well. “Members of racial/ethnic minority groups may experience greater challenges in establishing a trusting therapeutic relationship due to perceived or actual cultural differences or cultural biases,” said Sherry Muterspaugh Walling of the Department of Psychology at Fresno Pacific University.

Because half of the therapists in the United States are Caucasian or of European decent, Walling believes this presents an obstacle, especially for men seeking treatment for violent crimes. “White therapists working with clients who are members of racial/ethnic minority groups may symbolize past experiences of mistreatment or discrimination or experiences of racism within the criminal justice system,” said Walling, lead author of a recent study that evaluated WA in interracial client-therapist settings. “The current study seeks to address this important research need by examining therapist and client reports of working alliance (WA) by client race/ethnicity across four time points during a 16-week cognitive– behavioral treatment program for male perpetrators of intimate partner violence (IPV).”

The participants included 107 male offenders, half of whom were Caucasian. The other half was Hispanic, American Indian, Asian American or African American. Walling discovered that the Caucasian clients who met with white therapists experienced an increase in WA over the 16 weeks. However, the minority participants did not. “The interaction between client race/ethnicity and WA was also a significant predictor of treatment outcome at 6-month follow-up,” said Walling. “The current findings point to the importance of race/ethnicity in the development of the therapist– client relationship.” She added, “Further exploration into the mechanisms underlying these differences is essential to enhance the effectiveness and quality of treatment programs for partner-violent men.”

Reference:
Walling, S. M., Suvak, M. K., Howard, J. M., Taft, C. T., & Murphy, C. M. (2011, December 19). Race/Ethnicity as a Predictor of Change in Working Alliance During Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Intimate Partner Violence Perpetrators. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1037/a0025751

A colorful wooden spoon sits next to a stew with many ingredients; snap-peas and fresh herbs surround the bowl.Why is being multiculturally-minded vital for improving people’s wellbeing? The answer, surprisingly, can be found in our kitchens.

Kitchens?

People from diverse backgrounds often laugh, nod, smile, and clap when they hear me stating, “for bicultural or multicultural individuals and families, the standard-sized kitchen is never big enough; these kitchens are not designed for multicultural people.”

Yes, kitchens.

Picture some of the stuff I have in my Asian-American kitchen: rice cooker, deep fryer, crock-pot, two sets of steamers (Chinese and American), hot water pots, coffee pot, two sets of tea pots, espresso maker, indoor grill, wok, skillet, saucepan, two sets of dinnerware, two sets of kitchen knives, and a really wide range of sauces and condiments (e.g., soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, apple cider vinegar, Chinese black and white vinegars).

Now imagine opening my multicultural refrigerator. You will see tofu (of all kinds), cheese (of all kinds), wines (Chinese, Napa, and Oregon), pickles, Chinese pickles, and vegetables and fruits from different parts of the world.

I am neither a hoarder nor a foodie. Many friends consider me a person who lives a simple life. I also do not like my kitchen being so crowded, because, at times, too many choices and too much knowledge is confusing and frustrating. Moreover, I have been subjected to some unintentionally judgmental looks and comments about my kitchen. “You must choose,” “You have too much stuff,” “You are an American.”

However, this crowded and diverse kitchen is a reflection of who I am. I connect with, have lived in, understand, and enjoy both cultures. Both the black bean paste short-ribs my mom made and the BBQ short-ribs my advisor made are delicious, but they can not replace each other, and I have both sauces in my kitchen.

Once, an individual in an audience shared, “My family is Mexican-Italian-American, we have three sets of stuff, and the counter is not big enough for the microwave, coffee maker, tortilla warmer, and the pasta maker!”

But you already know that I am not only talking about kitchens. The kitchen is a metaphor. Think about being familiar with and identifying with different aspects of two or more cultures: value systems, manners, house layouts, dress codes, expression of emotions, behaviors, holidays, traditions, expectations, responsibilities, ways of coping, etc. Whenever a multicultural individual makes a decision (consciously or subconsciously) or takes in information, this person has at least three sets of value systems and criteria to think through. Having these lenses of identity to filter things through is extremely confusing and exhausting.

You think, wait, why at least three sets of values systems?”

For example, all bi-cultural individuals will have at least three sets of knowledge: Cultural A, Cultural B, and the intersection of both cultures. For example, an Asian-American person needs to learn that:

Nothing is simple in my kitchen. At times, I do not know how to act, because I want to avoid being judged or misunderstood. For example, if you come to my house and ask for a spoon—I will have to stop and think, do you want a Chinese soup spoon, Korean spoon, or one of the American spoons (dessert, tea, dinner)? Now, imagine the questions a multicultural person may go through when asked, say, to be assertive—Where? What? To whom? By what cultural standard? How will people from two different cultures see me?

A kitchen designed for a single culture will not be big enough for a multicultural individual, unless this multicultural individual hides, leaves, or staggers things. By a single-culture kitchen’s standard, the multicultural individual’s kitchen may seem to be unorganized, too crowded, or that of a hoarder. But as culturally responsive clinicians, we have to ask—is it a kitchen design problem or the individual’s problem? How many of us would willingly cut or give up things that are part of us just because there is not enough space?

Yes, you are correct. I am talking about the theories that were developed many years ago that may not be applicable to people of different cultures or who are multicultural. Those theories are like single-cultural kitchens that do not fit multicultural individuals’ needs. I am talking about how many multicultural people’s experiences may be a result of their having at least three sets of knowledge. I am also encouraging all of us to inform, honor, and help ourselves and our multicultural individuals to understand why they feel their “kitchen” is not big enough.

Then, we and the people we work with, may be able to really start appreciating how much more work they have done and how rich their lives are, despite the unavoidable stress and constant managing and learning.

Important Notice

GoodTherapy is not intended to be a substitute for professional advice, diagnosis, medical treatment, or therapy. Always seek the advice of your physician or qualified mental health provider with any questions you may have regarding any mental health symptom or medical condition. Never disregard professional psychological or medical advice nor delay in seeking professional advice or treatment because of something you have read on GoodTherapy.