Culturally Centered Psychosocial Interventions

Over the last few decades, psychologists and other health professionals have called attention to the importance of considering cultural and ethnic-minority aspects in any psychosocial interventions. Although, at present, there are published guidelines on the practice of culturally competent psychology, there is still a lack of practical information about how to carry out appropriate interventions with specific populations of different cultural and ethnic backgrounds. In this article, the authors review relevant literature concerning the consideration of cultural issues in psychosocial interventions. They present arguments in favor of culturally centering interventions. In addition, they discuss a culturally sensitive framework that has shown to be effective for working with Latinos and Latinas. This framework may also be applicable to other cultural and ethnic groups.

Reprinted from J Community Psychol 2006; 34:121–132, with permission from Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Copyright © 2006