Patients’ Perceptions of Their Therapist: Effects of Race, Culture, and Cultural Competency on the Working Alliance

The purpose of this study was to investigate the extent to which patients feel racially and culturally similar to their therapist, patients’ perceptions of their therapist’s cultural competence, and how these factors relate to the working alliance in a naturalistic treatment setting.

Participants were 119 adult patients treated at a large outpatient clinic by clinicians with a range of professional backgrounds (e.g., psychiatric residents, psychologists in training, and staff therapists). Patients were asked to rate the level of racial and cultural similarity between themselves and their therapist and to provide their assessment of their therapist’s cultural competency and of the working alliance.

Findings suggest that patients’ ratings of perceived cultural and racial similarity were not significantly related to the working alliance. However, perceptions of racial and cultural similarity were significantly associated with perceived therapist cultural competence. Perceived cultural competence was also strongly related to the working alliance. Finally, patients’ ratings of their therapist’s cultural competencies in the areas of awareness and skill, but not knowledge, predicted a strong working alliance after analyses controlled for ratings of racial and cultural similarity.

This study suggests the importance of heightening mental health clinicians’ awareness of the influence of culture on the therapeutic relationship and the important role of a therapist’s cultural competencies (specifically, awareness and skill) in the working alliance, which may matter more to patients than perceptions of racial or cultural similarity.