Psychotherapy and Culture: Past, Present, Future

During 2020, the twin pandemics of COVID-19 and social unrest exposed significant socioeconomic and racial/ethnic disparities within the United States. Unfortunately, psychotherapy has often reflected these disparities. If psychotherapy is to remain meaningful and credible it needs to be inclusive of the needs and characteristics of all, not just of a privileged few. However, this does not mean that psychotherapy has not strived to diversify. In fact, significant advances in the field are the results of these efforts. In this article, the intersections between culture and psychotherapy are examined through three distinct types of psychotherapy underscoring their strengths and limitations and using these to propose future areas of cultural psychotherapy research. It is hoped that an enhanced awareness of these distinctions will lead psychologists to more effectively embrace a psychotherapy that is more efficacious and beneficial for all.