Contemp Fam Ther (2014) 36:417–425 DOI 10.1007/s10591-014-9308-4
ORIGINAL PAPER
Therapist Self-disclosure and Culturally Competent Care with Mexican–American Court Mandated Clients: A Phenomenological Study George W. Bitar • Thomas Kimball J. Maria Bermu´dez • Cora Drew
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Published online: 9 May 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014
Abstract Therapist self-disclosure (TSD) is a skill with numerous potential benefits and risks for the therapeutic alliance. While its effects have been established, little empirical research has examined the impact of TSD in cross-cultural treatment settings with court-mandated clients, a context with unique considerations. In an effort to help fill this gap, results of a phenomenological study examining the effects of TSD on Mexican–American men working with Anglo American therapists in a mandated treatment setting are presented. The results of this study indicate that TSD is a culturally competent intervention with several benefits for mandated clients, including strengthening the therapeutic alliance, normalizing client problems, lessening the therapist-client hierarchy, and modeling the acceptability of self-disclosure. Clinical and marriage and family therapy educational implications are also discussed. Keywords Therapist self-disclosure Court mandated treatment Cultural competence Mexican–American men Cross-cultural counseling Masculinity
G. W. Bitar (&) C. Drew Marriage and Family Therapy Program, Pfeiffer University, 4701 Park Rd., Charlotte, NC 28209, USA e-mail: george.bitar@pfeiffer.edu
Therapeutic self-disclosure (TSD) has received increasing empirical attention over the past decade. Defined as the ‘‘… revelation of personal rather than professional information to a client by a therapist,’’ (Zur 2009, p. 21), research suggests that TSD is a powerful skill that can strengthen the therapeutic alliance (Hanson 2005; Knox and Hill 2003) and normalize universal human experiences (Henretty and Levitt 2010), while enhancing client trust and engagement in the treatment process (Audet and Everall 2010). While there are several potential benefits of TSD, there are also risks to this skill, including blurred client-therapist boundaries and the loss of therapist credibility (Audet and Everall 2010). Additionally, there are important ethical issues when considering the use of TSD that must guide therapists in determining how self-disclosure is utilized (Gibson 2012). While research is generally supportive of the use of TSD, there are few studies examining the use of this skill as a component of culturally competent care or as a method of strengthening the therapeutic alliance with court-mandated clients. The purpose of this study is to fill this gap by exploring the impact of TSD on the therapeutic alliance within a cross-cultural, mandated treatment context.
Literature Review
C. Drew e-mail: cora.drew@pfeiffer.edu
A Brief History of TSD
T. Kimball Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, USA e-mail: thomas.kimball@ttu.edu
The role of TSD has evolved over time. Farber (2006) explains that the emergence of client-centered therapy (and other humanistic and existential approaches), in the late 1950s and the women’s movement have had a profound impact on how the therapist’s role is conceptualized. Carl Rogers and the humanistic movement in therapy moved the
J. M. Bermu´dez University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA e-mail: mbermude@uga.edu
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