When faced with the deeply personal decision of choosing a therapist to work with on your mental health, one of the questions that might come up is whether to work with someone who shares their ethnicity with you, or whether it might be counterproductive. In this blogpost, we look at some common considerations, which will hopefully help you make a decision.
The Advantages of Shared Understanding
To start off, let’s look at the fairly apparent reasons why clients may want to see a counsellor or psychotherapist who shares a common ethnic background. In this case, a therapist maybe better placed to understand complex dynamics related to a particular culture, religious nuances, or class-based family expectations. Specifically for clients who are of minority ethnicity in the UK (broadly those who do not identify as White British), they may have relatable family-of-origin experiences of migration or diaspora. This means that the client has to spend less time explaining context and ‘educating’ the therapist about their culture, meaning that they can spend valuable therapy time on deeper work.
A therapist with a shared ethnic background can also relate to the more unique issues that someone from an ethnic minority faces in the UK, such as unintentional internalised racism among those who are unaware of the implications of their actions, microaggressions, or living within a system that contains biases. These challenges are common to everyone who shares the ethnic identity, regardless of financial position or status. For example, a migrant client in the UK from an Asian country such as India, Pakistan, or Sri Lanka, or British Asian families who had ancestors originally from those countries would share the experience of being part of a global majority ethnicity, who are minoritised in the UK. A culturally aligned South Asian therapist could validate experiences related to identity, culturally ingrained gender norms, family dictates, generational wealth allocation or inheritance practices, without the client needing to explain expectations arising from their background or conformist attitudes.
Additionally, when it comes to highly personal topics such as those addressed in sex therapy, clients may prefer a therapist of the same ethnicity due to the lived understanding anticipated from them regarding culture-specific expectations around sex. For example, there have been some recent studies that indicate that ethnic minorities can face discrimination (both from potential partners of their own ethnicity as well as others) when it comes to sex, based on their ethnicity.
A culturally attuned therapist can detect subtle, non-verbal communication, idioms, or cultural 'shorthand' that immediately establishes or deepens the therapeutic connection, providing the most sophisticated service possible.
The Value of a Therapist with Different Cultural Perspective
Conversely, some of the factors that make a therapist who shares ethnicity with their client could also work against them. It can be questioned whether a therapist who makes assumptions based on ethnic stereotypes (whether regarding their own culture or others) is able to be effective at all. While a therapist from a different ethnic background might bring alternative philosophical or psychological frameworks in to therapy, leading to unexpected breakthroughs – these need to be done without making any cultural assumptions regarding the client.
A good therapist regardless of their background should be able to offer objective support and an unbiased therapeutic space regardless of the client's ethnicity, cultural norms or historical baggage. A therapist from a different upbringing can offer context-free insight unburdened by the mutual cultural lens or communal narratives of a shared background. This can be especially valuable for challenging clients deeply ingrained and possibly limiting, cultural beliefs.
In the age of social media, especially some with public profiles can choose a therapist outside their immediate social or cultural sphere as an added layer of confidentiality and psychological safety. They are reassured by the reduced risk of accidental shared connections, which can be the case especially if client and therapist belong to a specific minority group who have a small community within the country.
Making an Informed Choice
It is clear that the choice is not as simple as a 'better or worse' scenario, but a deliberate decision based on a client's needs. Are you someone who is seeking a therapist to process issues directly related to ethnicity, living in a country where your ethnicity is minoritised? A ‘shared lens’ with a therapist who has more insight in to lived experience as a minority might be better suited. On the other hand, if a client is in circumstances where their public profile requires additional discretion, or cultural baggage exists that is likely to precipitate the fear of judgement and shame, a therapist who can bring in objectivity could be best.