What to Look For in a Culturally Competent Therapist

What Cultural Competence Actually Means

At its core, cultural competence in therapy means that a practitioner has developed the awareness, knowledge, and skills to work effectively with people whose cultural backgrounds differ from their own — or who are navigating multiple cultural contexts simultaneously.

It is not a fixed credential. It is an ongoing orientation. The most genuinely culturally competent therapists tend to speak about it as something they continue to develop, not something they have achieved.

For South Asians in Canada, cultural competence matters in a very specific way. It means a therapist who understands — not just intellectually but in practice — why ‘just set a boundary with your parents’ is not simple advice. Who understands the weight of collective identity. Who doesn’t frame interdependence as dysfunction or interpret silence as resistance. Who holds the complexity of being between cultures without pathologizing it.

Research published in the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry found that South Asians with depression report the highest proportion of unmet mental health needs among ethnic minority groups in Canada — in large part because available care did not reflect their cultural reality. Culturally competent care is not a nicety; it is a clinical need.

Green Flags: What to Look For

Specific training in culturally adapted approaches

There is a meaningful difference between a therapist who has taken a diversity training module and one who has completed formal training in culturally adapted therapy. At Sukoon, all practitioners are trained in Culturally adapted Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CaCBT) — a protocol developed specifically for South Asian populations and researched by Dr. Farooq Naeem at the University of Toronto and CAMH. When exploring other practitioners, asking directly about their training in culturally adapted approaches is a reasonable and useful question.

Language ability

The option to conduct sessions in a first language — Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, Tamil, Bengali, Gujarati, or others — can significantly reduce the emotional labour of therapy. Expressing nuanced emotional states in a second language adds cognitive load that doesn’t belong in a therapy session. See also: Why Language Matters in Therapy.

Lived experience or personal cultural proximity

A therapist who has navigated similar cultural terrain — whether as a first-generation immigrant, as part of the South Asian diaspora, or through personal experience of dual identity — often brings a different quality of understanding than one who has only learned about these experiences from outside. This is not a requirement. It is a meaningful signal when it is present.

Questions they ask in a first session

A free 15-minute connection call is an appropriate time to ask:

• What experience do you have working with South Asian clients?”
• How do you approach therapy when family dynamics or collective identity are central to what someone is navigating?
• Are you familiar with CaCBT or other culturally adapted approaches?
• Do you offer sessions in [language]?

These are not audacious questions. They are reasonable criteria for a professional relationship that will involve significant vulnerability. A good therapist will welcome them.

What About Therapists Who Are Not South Asian?

Cultural competence is not the same as shared background. Some of the most effective work in culturally adapted therapy is done by practitioners who do not share their client’s heritage — because they have done the reflective work to understand their own cultural positioning and have trained specifically in cross-cultural approaches. Conversely, sharing a cultural background does not automatically make a therapist culturally competent; their training, orientation, and self-awareness matter just as much.

The question is not ‘is this person South Asian?’ It is ‘does this person have the awareness, training, and genuine curiosity to hold my full context without requiring me to constantly translate it?’

At Sukoon

Every practitioner at Sukoon is trained in culturally adapted care and has been selected specifically for their ability to work with South Asian diaspora experiences. Many speak South Asian languages. Many have personal proximity to the cultural contexts their clients navigate. The practitioners page allows filtering by language, focus area, and type of care.

See also: What Does Culturally Adapted Care Actually Mean? for a deeper look at the clinical evidence behind culturally adapted therapy.

Ready to begin? Every Sukoon practitioner offers a free 15-minute connection call. Browse the team, read their profiles, and find someone whose approach, language, and background feel right.

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