Event location: London
Date: 7th Mar 2011
The Delivering Race Equality Programme (Department of Health 2005)
highlighted the need to improve access to culturally appropriate
counselling and psychological therapies, for individuals from Black and
minority ethnic communities. The Improving Access to Psychological
Therapies (IAPT) initiative has improved access to counselling and
psychological therapies for people suffering from anxiety and
depression from a range of diverse backgrounds including those from BME
communities. The third wave new CBT treatments include Mindfulness
Based CBT and Meditation. The latter is prevalent in many cultures
across the world and practiced directly or indirectly by several world
religions.
Having made progress, there is now a need to consider the extent to
which counselling and psychological services are culturally appropriate
and whether they need to be adapted.
In the case of CBT, there is robust evidence to show that CBT is an
effective treatment for people suffering from anxiety and depression.
The emphasis in CBT is on the client's social context and that CBT
therapists work collaboratively with clients to agree treatment
options. However, CBT is based on Western concepts and illness models.
The focus is on the individual and on treating the individual. For some
people, this will be a challenge especially if they view themselves in
the context of their immediate and wider family and / or in the
context of their community. Some critics of CBT argue that by focusing
on the individual, the larger familial, community and societal issues
and problems are ignored or left unspoken and unaddressed.