Assessing psychotherapy as a western healing practice through prediction of help-seeking attitudes

Abstract

This exploratory study assessed the ability of six theory-derived variables representing possible signifiers for the Western cultural components of psychotherapy for predicting attitudes towards professional psychological help-seeking. Using data from 377 participants from India, regression analyses were conducted to test six hypotheses derived from Frank’s and Frank common factors model of psychotherapy. Results indicated a positive relationship between European American values and help-seeking attitudes, a negative relationship between Asian values and help-seeking attitudes, a positive relationship between westernization and help-seeking attitudes, and a negative relationship between cultural mistrust and help-seeking attitudes. Assessing a client’s cultural values, endorsement of a Western lifestyle, and level of cultural mistrust may be particularly predictive in determining suitability for and openness to psychotherapy with the single best predictor being European-American values. Those who do not adhere to Western values, who endorse more Asian values, who live a visibly non-Western lifestyle, and who have high mistrust of Western culture may be better suited for more culturally congruent healing methods.