What makes psychotherapy ‘Western’? Understanding help-seeking attitudes of Indians towards psychotherapy

Psychotherapy is understood as a Western healing method, meaning, individuals seem to most benefit from psychotherapy when they have values, beliefs, and morals driven by Westernized principles. In the current research, we undertake the objective of assessing Western components of psychotherapy to assess their relationship with attitudes towards psychotherapy. Western components of psychotherapy were measured as Asian values, collective self-esteem, cultural mistrust, ethnic identity, and European-American values were investigated. Data were collected from 144 university students in India. We find that cultural mistrust revealed a statistically significant negative prediction for positive attitudes for professional help-seeking. Our research is a preliminary study to investigate a variables that encapsulate the Western elements of psychotherapy to inform psychotherapy practices in non-Western contexts.