Emotion Focused Therapy and Chinese American Clients: An Exploration Using the Cultural Lens Approach

Asian Americans are the fastest growing ethnic group in the United States and of this group, Chinese Americans represent the largest subgroup. Some scholars have speculated that more symptom-focused and directive psychotherapeutic approaches may be more congruent with Chinese Americans’ conceptualization of treatment than traditional Western modalities. Although these approaches may be more culturally appropriate and efficacious for some Chinese American clients, they presuppose that Chinese American clients have difficulties or an inability to express or communicate underlying emotional distress. As a consequence of this generalization, mental health therapists may assume that emotion-oriented psychotherapeutic approaches such as Emotion Focused Therapy (EFT) will not benefit this population. Notwithstanding efforts to expand the relevance of EFT, there remains little research examining the cultural validity of EFT across cultural groups, particularly for Chinese American clients. In this article, we use the Cultural Lens Approach to assess the relevance and applicability of EFT for Chinese American individuals and couples. The aim of this article is to provide clinical direction for therapists using EFT with Chinese American clients and energize the field to conduct further research examining the relevance and applicability of psychotherapeutic approaches with this client group. Further, this article aims to combat stereotypes and Western notions of mental health, which may be limiting clinical and research perspectives on mental healthcare for Chinese Americans. This exploration comes at a time when Chinese Americans are at increased risk of adverse mental health outcomes due to race-based violence and discrimination observed during the COVID-19 pandemic.