Document Type

Article

Journal/Book Title/Conference

Journal of Clinical Psychology

Volume

67

Issue

2

Publisher

Wiley

Publication Date

11-23-2011

First Page

166

Last Page

175

Abstract

This article summarizes the definitions, means, and research of adapting psychotherapy to clients' cultural backgrounds. We begin by reviewing the prevailing definitions of cultural adaptation and providing a clinical example. We present an original meta-analysis of 65 experimental and quasi-experimental studies involving 8,620 participants. The omnibus effect size of d = .46 indicates that treatments specifically adapted for clients of color were moderately more effective with that clientele than traditional treatments. The most effective treatments tended to be those with greater numbers of cultural adaptations. Mental health services targeted to a specific cultural group were several times more effective than those provided to clients from a variety of cultural backgrounds. We recommend a series of research-supported therapeutic practices that account for clients' culture, with culture-specific treatments being more effective than generally culture-sensitive treatments.

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