Training Mental Health Providers in Cultural Competence: A Transformative Learning Process

Cultural competence training is viewed as a strategy to reduce cultural disparities in mental health (Dougherty, 2004 Dougherty , R. ( 2004 ). Reducing disparity in behavioral health services: A report from the American College of Mental Health Administration . Administration and Policy in Mental Health , 3 ( 3 ), 253 – 263 .Crossref , Google Scholar). The purpose of this article is to examine the process of becoming more culturally competent. This process evaluation study applied Bennett's Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity to logs written by four cohorts of mental health and psychiatric rehabilitation teams of administrators, mental health practitioners and peer providers who participated in intensive, multicultural, recovery-oriented, continuing education over a 10-month period. Participants submitted logs later coded using Bennett's categories. A nonlinear process of group transformation from ethnocentric to ethnorelative was demonstrated. During the initial and midpoints of the training, there was often a spike in ethnocentrism followed by acceleration in the movement toward ethnorelativism. Findings are discussed in relation to transformative learning theory and implications for design of multicultural training that promotes transformational, second order change are considered.