A practice-based study of cultural humility and well-being among psychotherapy clients

One trend in psychotherapy research involves examining client factors to better understand change. Some have framed client factors as virtues. Humility is one virtue that has gained attention with evidence that suggests humility may help facilitate therapeutic change. A specific type of humility, cultural humility, however, has not been closely examined as a client factor. Cultural humility is a relational virtue that addresses an individual's ability to be open towards cultural differences and can be helpful in buffering diverse relational dynamics (e.g., student and teacher, family members and friends with different beliefs). In this study, we examined client change in cultural humility and well-being using group-based trajectory modelling. We also examined differentiation as a predictor of trajectory membership and compared trajectories on levels of symptoms. Results suggested that a subgroup of clients showed significant increases in cultural humility and well-being. Further analyses found that clients with higher levels of initial differentiation were more likely to belong to the growth trajectory. This same trajectory also decreased in symptoms over time.