ABSTRACT
In an increasingly multicultural environment, mental health professionals must develop awareness, knowledge, and skills for creating culturally congruent and effective plans with a broad array of clients. In this chapter we will discuss how clinicians can prepare treatment plans to work effectively with clients from diverse and unique cultural backgrounds, contexts, and perspectives. We will discuss how practitioners can attend to culture as it relates to both the content of the treatment plan as well as the processes involved in developing and negotiating the plan. We have lived, worked, and conducted research internationally, in addition to working with diverse cultural and language groups in the United States. We will draw on our research and clinical work in diverse settings and with diverse individuals to illustrate some of the issues that arise in treatment planning, demonstrate some of the strategies we have used, and also share some of the mistakes we have made in our own efforts toward culturally competent treatment planning.
