Potentially Harmful Therapy and Multicultural Counseling: Bridging Two Disciplinary Discourses

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Psychotherapy Research

Background:

• Growing concern among psychologists regarding potentially harmful therapy.
• Existing discourse on therapy harm overlooks long-standing issues raised by the multicultural counseling and psychotherapy movement.

Purpose of the Study:

• To bridge the gap between recent discussions on harmful therapy and the multicultural counseling movement.
• To establish a more robust framework for identifying and addressing harmful therapy.

Main Methods:

• Review of existing discourses on harmful therapy and multicultural counseling.
• Analysis of the divergent assumptions underlying these two fields regarding harm.
• Exploration of the social construction of harm in psychotherapy.

Main Results:

• Discourses on harmful therapy and multicultural counseling operate with differing assumptions about the sources, objects, and scope of harm.
• Psychotherapy may possess inherent ethnocentric biases.
• Evidence collection strategies for harm need integration with social justice principles.

Conclusions:

• Integrating multicultural perspectives is crucial for a comprehensive understanding of harmful therapy.
• Recognizing harm as a social construct and psychotherapy's potential ethnocentrism are key.
• A social justice agenda should inform research and practice related to therapy harm.