Culturally Adapting Psychotherapy for Asian Heritage Populations

Current census reports indicate that over half of the United States will be of ethnic minority background by 2050. Yet few published studies have examined or demonstrated the efficacy of currently established psychological treatments for ethnic minorities. Culturally Adapting Psychotherapy for Asian Heritage Populations: An Evidence-Based Approach identifies the need for culturally adapted psychotherapy and helps support the cultural competency movement by helping providers develop specific skillsets, rather than merely focusing on cultural self-awareness and knowledge of other groups. The book provides a top-down and bottom-up community-participatory framework for developing culturally adapted interventions that can be readily applied to many other groups. Areas targeted for adaptation are broken down into domains, principles, and the justifying rationales. This is one of the first books that provides concrete, practical, and specific advice for researchers and practitioners alike. It is also the first book that provides an actual culturally adapted treatment manual so that the reader can see cultural adaptations in action. - Summarizes psychotherapy research indicating underrepresentation of ethnic minorities - Describes the first evidence-based culturally adapted treatment for Asian heritage populations - Provides concrete examples of adapted psychotherapy in practice - Clarifies how this framework can be further used to adapt interventions for other ethnic groups - Highlights how principles used to develop this depression-specific treatment can be applied to other disorders - Includes the full treatment manual Improving Your Mood: A Culturally Responsive and Holistic Approach to Treating Depression in Chinese Americans

Wei-Chin Hwang, Ph.D., is a Professor of Clinical Psychology at Claremont McKenna College. He received his Ph.D. from the clinical psychology program at UCLA (2003), completed his pre-doctoral fellowship at Richmond Area Multi-Services (RAMS) - National Asian American Psychology Training Center, and completed a clinical-research postdoctoral fellowship at Harbor UCLA Medical Center. In college, he double majored in Psychology and Asian Studies at the University of Utah. His research focuses on understanding and reducing mental health disparities, improving psychotherapy process and outcomes, cultivating therapist cultural competency and effectiveness when working with people from different backgrounds, and developing models and frameworks for culturally adapting therapy for ethnic minorities. His work has been recognized by a number of professional organizations, and he was awarded the American Psychological Association Minority Fellowship Program Early Career Award. He was also inducted as a fellow for the Asian American Psychological Association and the Western Psychological Association. He was awarded the Asian American Psychological Association Early Career Award and the Enrico E. Jones Award for Research in Psychotherapy and Clinical Psychology by the Western Psychological Association. Dr. Hwang is a licensed clinical psychologist and has an independent clinical and consulting practice in Pasadena and Claremont, California.