Culturally sensitive guided imagery for allocentric Latinos: A pilot study

The Culturally Competent Relaxation Intervention (CCRI) was developed and assessed with 25 Latino adults. In contrast to traditional psychotherapeutic and relaxation interventions, which are highly influenced by individualistic/idiocentric (the tendency to define oneself in isolation from others) assumptions, the CCRI was designed according to an allocentric self-orientation (the tendency to define oneself in relationship with others), which is prevalent among Latinos. This pilot study found preliminary evidence suggesting that participants who were more allocentric had higher levels of treatment adherence and, contrary to what was expected, idiocentric levels were not inversely related with treatment adherence. In addition, as hypothesized, it was found that higher levels of treatment adherence were related to reductions of anxiety symptoms. These findings are consistent with the predictions of the cultural match theory, which proposes that patients adhere and benefit more from interventions that fit their own cultural characteristics. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved).