Negotiating therapy goals and tasks in cross-cultural psychotherapy

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ABSTRACTAs therapy progresses, alliances become more complex and are constantly negotiated. Analyzing transcripts from video-taped actual therapy sessions, this article examines how a client and therapist from different cultures negotiate to assert and/or compromise their goals and tasks in psychotherapy. Using the Negotiation of Therapy Agenda (NOTA), we conduct a turn-by-turn analysis to examine discursive patterns deployed by the client and therapist in cross-cultural interactions. Findings illustrate how the therapy goals and tasks (1) become ‘incompatible’ when therapist falls into enacting their own cultural values by essentialising the client’s culture; and (2) become ‘compatible’ when the therapist closely tracks and follows the client’s talk and subsequently cultural values. This analysis thus highlights the process of negotiating therapy goals and tasks as a site to reify cultural values and norms in cross-cultural dyads. We close with suggestions on how to actively attend to opportunities for cultural engagement in therapy and on future research areas.