CONCEPTUAL ANALYSIS article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Cultural Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1599855
Culturally sensitive psychotherapy - technique or attitude?
Provisionally accepted
- 1University of Giessen, Giessen, Germany
- 2Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Giessen, Giessen, Germany
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Culturally sensitive psychotherapy is essential in increasingly diverse societies, where cultural, religious, and linguistic differences shape how distress is experienced and communicated. This article conceptualizes culturally sensitive psychotherapy not only as a set of techniques, but as a reflective professional attitude. Drawing on models of intercultural competence and clinical examples, the article explores how culture affects the expression of symptoms, help-seeking behavior, and therapeutic relationships, especially among migrants. Integrating the cultural con-texts enhances diagnostic accuracy, therapeutic alliance, and treatment outcomes. The approach balances awareness of cultural influence with the risk of stereotyping, urging clinicians to adopt a self-reflective stance. Culturally sensitive psychotherapy thus fosters effective and respectful care across diverse populations.
Keywords: culture, Psychotherapy, Migration, mental heaith, Intercultural awareness and competence
Received: 25 Mar 2025; Accepted: 02 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Stingl and Hanewald. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Markus Stingl, University of Giessen, Giessen, Germany
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