糖心视频

Ethnic Diversity in Counselling & Psychotherapy

Our third collaborative workshop focussed on working within ethnic diversity in counselling and psychotherapy. This was the third in a series of four workshops.

We introduced practitioners to the Strathclyde Counselling & Psychotherapy Research Clinic and shared some of our research findings in relation to ethnic diversity. We were joined by Gayathri Rajaraman, a former Research Clinic placement student, who shared with us her experiences of ethnic diversity in the therapy room, and our Counselling Unit colleague Refana Saleem, who introduced us to the ‘Working within Diversity’ study, a current dissertation group project looking at the experiences of Asian trainee counsellors based on Research Clinic archival data. The various presentations provided much food for thought and the basis for lively group discussions throughout the afternoon. 

Together, we came up with some basic 'principles for practice' around working within ethnic diversity. You can find a list of the principles we came up with below. 

We invited all our workshop attendees to take part in a follow-up study which is still on-going. The intent is to measure the impact the workshops have had on attendees’ practice and what they have taken away from them. Participation in the follow-up research is entirely voluntary. Read more about the research aspect of the project. 

Principles for Good Practice: Ethnic Diversity

  • Individuality – recognise ethnicity as one aspect of identity and stay aware of both your own and the client's cultural frame of reference.
  • Self-awareness – pay attention to your own biases, assumptions, non-verbal communication, and limitations.
  • Cultural sensitivity – use sensitive, appropriate language, and attend to the spoken and unspoken cultural differences in communication, perspective, and expectations.
  • Openness & Co-creation - Stay open and curious in service of the relationship, not as a substitute for learning. Naming barriers to understanding and inviting the client's preferences and unique cultural frame of reference.
  • Safety, Congruence & Growth - Provide a safe, non-judgemental environment, for expression and exploration. Acknowledge your internal responses and barriers and engage honestly within supervision to identify areas for ongoing learning around diversity.
  • Compassion & Respect - Hold compassion and respect for both yourself and your clients' unique perspectives and humanity. Endeavour to find 'Unity in Diversity' and remember that oppression is systemic.

Principles collaboratively agreed upon by participants of workshop (Ethnic Diversity in Counselling and Psychotherapy on 03/02/2026 - this link opens a PDF document).