Culturally-responsive training for mental health practitioners with Daniela Ho Tan

👋Hello Shapes and Sounds community!

My name is Daniela (Dani) Ho Tan and I am a clinical psychologist, advanced accredited schema therapist and board-approved supervisor. I currently run a private practice Mindwealth Psychology in Putney which is a quaint little village in Sydney. I am also a mum of two very energetic boys, a caffeine addict, foodie, travel addict and known for having pretty terrible taste in television and movies (I am partial to terrible reality tv!).

I am of Vietnamese heritage (plus 3.3% Chinese according to 23andme) and fun fact - was born in Germany. My father migrated to Germany to study engineering and my mother escaped the Vietnam War as a boat person. Our family migrated to Australia when I was five years old and this has been our home ever since.

As a person of the Asian diaspora, I have grappled with my own challenges with self-identity and intergenerational trauma. It was not until I undertook my schema therapy accreditation where part of the supervision sessions involved reflecting on how our upbringing impacts the schemas/belief patterns we hold that I began to examine culture and psychology further.

Reflecting on my postgraduate training and workshops I have attended there was a lack of focus on culture. I began to ask myself “Why is this?” because culture forms such an integral part of our identity.

Part of it I think is based on the fact that Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) trainers and supervisors remain the minority in Australia so there is less opportunity to learn from those who offer a more diverse view. The main reason though I believe is that that psychology predominantly draws from the West and research shows that Western health-care interventions have been based on the premise that mental health is “culturally neutral” and that interventions can be applied to all (Burr & Chapman, 1998).

However, health and illness are culturally constructed experiences (Manderson, 1990) so a blanket approach does not work. In my own clinical work I noticed these gaps between Western therapy principles and Asian cultural values.

This prompted me to start Project HoriZen – my little passion project that is aimed at providing research, training and supervision in culturally responsive practice for Asian heritage populations.

I conducted some exploratory interviews via Project HoriZen (thanks to all the Shapes and Sounds practitioners who partook!) to look at what challenges other clinicians found and was able to identify some key themes:

• Clinicians are informally incorporating culture into their formulations as there is an absence of training that directly addresses how to incorporate culture into clinical formulation in a practical way
• The top three reported challenges in working with Asian clients were: 1) Addressing filial piety, 2) Working with language barriers and 3) Asian clients having difficulties in emotional affect.
• More training is desired that directly addresses how to deliver culturally responsive practice

I have taken all the findings of my research along with the literature reviews I conducted to curate my workshop “East meets West: Integrating Culture into Clinical Practice for Asian Heritage Populations”. It is a workshop designed for clinicians of ALL backgrounds who would like practical strategies in working in a culturally responsive manner with Asian clients.

Upcoming workshops:

- Sydney: Friday 15th March
- Melbourne: Thursday 27th June

If you are interested in learning more about these sessions, please visit our website.

~ Written by Daniela Ho Tan. 

References

Burr, J. & Chapman, T. (1998). Some reflections on cultural and social considerations in mental health nursing. Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, 5, 431– 437.

Manderson, L. (1990). Introduction: Does culture matter? In: J. Reid & P. Tromft (Eds). The Health of Immigrant Australia. A Social Perspective. Sydney: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Publishers.