The implicit ideology of Western superiority: culturally adapted psychotherapy as a colonial practice

The purpose of this article is to critically deconstruct culturally adapted psychotherapy (CAP) from a decolonial framework. This article draws from the anthropological frame of psychotherapy as an indigenous cultural healing practice of the EuroAmerican West to indicate how and when CAP risks continuing the legacy of colonization and the persisting ideology of Western/White supremacy. This conceptualization views CAP as a product of Western culture that is still inextricably imbued with Western culture and that necessarily requires transmission of Western cultural products. If one accepts these premises, classifying CAP as a potentially colonial practice should be apparent. The use of CAP could devalue a client’s non-Western cultural heritage and continue the marginalization of effective healing practices from the individual’s own culture. Before moving ahead with CAP, the practitioner should assess the degree to which the individual endorses the cultural components underlying the Western institution of psychotherapy. This can be done, for example, by considering variables such as the endorsement of Western and non-Western values, colonial mentality, and Western cultural mistrust. But ultimately decolonizing CAP requires elevating effective culturally indigenous healing practices to equal status with CAP in their own regard as recommended alternatives for many non-Western and non-European descent individuals.