Australian mental health care practitioners' construing of non-White and White people: implications for cultural competence and therapeutic alliance.

BACKGROUND: The development of cultural competence is central to the therapeutic alliance with clients from diverse backgrounds. Given that the majority of Australia's population growth is due to migration, mental health practitioner construing of non-White and White people has a significant role and impact on client engagement. METHOD: To examine the impact of mental health practitioner construing on their strategies for cultural competence and the therapeutic alliance, 20 White and non-White mental health practitioners and trainees providing mental health services were purposively sampled and interviewed face-to-face or via videoconferencing. Data was analysed thematically and the impact of construing on practitioner cultural competence and the therapeutic alliance were interpreted using Personal Construct Psychology. RESULTS: Practitioners demonstrated cultural competence in their acknowledgement of the impact of negative construing of ethnic, cultural, religious, social, racial and linguistic diversity on client wellbeing. Practitioners sought to address these negative impacts on clients by drawing on the client-practitioner relationship to improve the therapeutic alliance. CONCLUSIONS: The results reinforce the need for mental health care workers to develop cultural competence with a focus on developing awareness of the impact of frameworks of Whiteness on the experiences of non-White people. This is central to the development of a therapeutic alliance where clients feel understood and assured that their mental health concerns will not be constructed (and treated) through a framework that constrains both White and non-White people's opportunities for improved mental health and wellbeing.

The elaboration of personal construct psychology.

More than half a century has passed since the publication of George Kelly's (1955/1991) The Psychology of Personal Constructs. This review considers the elaboration of personal construct psychology (PCP) during this time, both by Kelly and by others who developed his ideas. Advances to the theory have principally concerned implicative relationships between constructs, construing of the self, social relationships, emotions, links with other approaches, and supporting research. With regard to methods of assessment of construing, major developments have occurred in both repertory grid and nongrid techniques, such as laddering. The principal advances in the applications of PCP have been in the clinical, educational, and organizational fields, but have by no means been limited to these areas. It can be concluded that PCP has met Kelly's own design specifications for a useful theory and that PCP can perhaps anticipate at least another half-century of elaboration.