ABSTRACT
Client-centered therapy involves allowing clients to help formulate the issues that will be dealt with in therapy. Today, however, client-centered strategies are being replaced with semi-directed techniques that involve both clients and therapists in the decision-making process. This chapter discusses the value of cultural safety and cultural competence within therapy and illustrates the ways of adapting the stages of change model to depict people as they are. The value of Carl Rogers’ client-centered methods is grasped. The chapter relates how motivational interviewing can provide direction to client-centered therapy. It recognizes the value of accepting people on their own terms. The ideas central to applying the stages of change model within a culturally appropriate context emphasize that psychological counseling needs to focus upon the thoughts, fears, motives, beliefs, and desires of actual people. Cultural safety and cultural competence are one part of a movement that emphasizes providing services in ways they are reflective of clients and what they think and feel.
