Multicultural therapy for people who are more than one thing
Have you ever struggled to answer the question "where are you from?" Or been asked "where are you really from?" If you've ever felt like you don't completely fit in, or like you're an unmanageable mix of cultures and places, you're not alone. Maybe the values you grew up with argue with each other in your head, and every big decision turns into a committee meeting.
I'm Brianna White, LMFT, and at Intrepid Counseling I offer multicultural therapy for culturally complex teens, adults and families. Below I'll explain what that means, who it helps, and how I work.
What is multicultural therapy?
Multicultural therapy is counseling that treats culture as central to who you are, not a footnote. It's for people who carry more than one culture inside: Third Culture Kids, immigrants and children of immigrants, bicultural and multilingual families, international students, adoptees, and couples who grew up in different worlds.
My understanding of the world, starting with being a culturally complex person, begins with the idea that more than one thing can be true at the same time. You can love a place and be angry at it. You can be proud of your family and need to do things differently. Therapy can help you sort, organize and make space to hold both.
What I want for you is what clients often say they want: confidence and freedom to be yourself more, and to get out of your head in a room full of people. I want you to land somewhere seen, relieved and hopeful, understanding how you make sense, and steering your own emotional world.
Common struggles for culturally complex people
Cross-cultural social anxiety: Not knowing which rules apply in the room you're in.
Conflicting values: One culture says stay close to family, settle down and form roots; another says go for the adventure, find your own place, try something new.
Language that's "almost" fluent: Thriving socially but failing classes taught in your second academic language.
Being a hidden immigrant: You look and sound like you belong, so nobody gives you grace for the gaps.
Loneliness: Belonging everywhere and nowhere, and trouble making friends who get it.
Cultural adjustment stress: The constant low hum of figuring out how things work here.
How do I know if multicultural therapy is for me?
Do you shrink your story to make it easier for others? You might be tired of the short version.
Do you feel like a chameleon, or a platypus? Blending in everywhere, or sticking out everywhere, both cost something.
Are you rethinking what you were raised to believe? Learning new history about a place you love, or an organization that raised you, can shake everything.
Do your family members have different home places? Each person in a family can carry a different blend of places they have lived in or connected to in their life. This is even true for siblings, especially if the family moved a lot. It can be helpful for a family to talk out loud together about the similarities and differences in their individual recipes for "where I'm from."
Who multicultural therapy is for
Multicultural counseling is for people integrating complex cultural identities: TCKs, missionary kids, immigrants, refugees, adoptees, bicultural and multilingual teens and adults, and cross-cultural families.
It may not be the best fit if you need therapy in a language other than English, or a higher level of care right now. I'll help you look for the right person.
How I approach multicultural therapy
As a TCK who grew up in Papua New Guinea, the U.S. is the foreign country I moved to as an adult, so all of my professional training was for working in a culture I wasn't quite raised in. Fortunately, my marriage and family therapy training emphasizes cultural humility, which means knowing that you don't know. My favorite answer to the question "what places have been significant to your family over the generations?" was a family who said, "We're so Norwegian!" and showed me jewelry they had on to prove it.
The foundational idea of Systems Theory in family therapy addresses cultural context at every level, from the nuclear family's subculture, to differences in parents' cultural backgrounds, to the interplay of school culture, family culture, neighborhood and national culture. Family therapists help individuals and their families find peaceful, empowered relationships at all of these levels.
When several sets of values live inside you, we give each one a voice. In clinical terms, I might call this Internal Family Systems with a macro multicultural twist. I also use CETA, which was validated in randomized trials in Thailand and Iraq with built-in methods for cultural adaptation. It marries clinical complexity with cultural complexity.
Language gets real attention too. A struggle to read could be partly fluency, or it could be poor eyesight that got missed because there wasn't quite time for the annual checkup on the last furlough. It could also mean being language lonely as the only person you know who is fluent in Sorani Kurdish. We normalize the natural emotions, like feeling isolated, incapable or misunderstood, that come with having different languages or identity pieces than the people around you.
What multicultural therapy looks like
We start with a 15-minute video call. Then we meet weekly, in person or online, for individuals or families. I'll ask about your places, languages, faith and family stories early, because they shape everything else.
How to start
Reach out. A sentence or two about what's bringing you here is plenty.
Request an intro call. We'll see if I'm the right fit.
Start your first session. We map your places and people and pick first goals.
About me
I look and sound a way that doesn't lead people to guess correctly where I grew up. In graduate school, I worked in East LA, and my clients and I compared notes: many who were not immigrants had painfully been assumed to be, and I had the opposite experience of being a hidden immigrant. I've lived the belonging everywhere and nowhere story, so you can count on me to be open and curious, and our work will be grounded in respect for your story and background.
Cultural questions we can work on
Identity integration: Feeling like you're all of yourself at once. See TCK therapist.
Decision-making with competing values.
We can also work on cross-cultural family patterns, settling into a new country without erasing the old one, and social confidence across cultural codes.
Tips if you're struggling right now
Expect to be a beginner. Common sense is only common to those with similar experiences. Ask "how new is this?" before judging yourself.
Build a family word for your blend. Some coffee is single-origin, some is a blend. Name yours with pride. In my family, we call the places we've lived and loved "fromies," the diminutive of "from." In a sentence: "What places are your fromies?" I believe "from" can be a plural word, like flock. I might ask a family, "Where all are you all from?"
Find globally minded people near you. An interfaith group, an international church, a language meetup.
Let both feelings in. It's normal to miss a place and also be relieved you left.
FAQ about multicultural therapy
What is multicultural therapy? It's therapy that puts your cultural background, languages and values at the center of the work, rather than assuming one "normal" way to think, feel or live.
What is an example of multicultural counseling? A young adult deciding whether to move abroad for work might explore what each of their cultural voices says, grieve what each choice costs, and land on a decision that fits who they are.
Why is cultural competence important in therapy? Without it, a therapist can misread normal cultural behavior as a symptom, or miss real struggles hidden behind "that's just how it was."
Do I need a therapist from my own culture? Sometimes that's ideal, but is there just one culture in you? I find very few people, even those with matching passports, languages and birthplaces, share a full matching set of cultural influences. What matters most is a therapist who is curious, humble and not shockable, and who won't make you the teacher every session.
Do you offer cross-cultural counseling for couples and families? I don't see couples in conflict in my practice, but I have great colleagues who do. Reach out and I'd be happy to suggest someone. Instead, I see whole families, parents and kids, siblings and individuals. My clients are always welcome to bring in a support person. When parents and kids grew up in different worlds, a lot of conflict is really two sets of expectations. Naming them helps.
Your whole story is welcome here
If you're ready to start multicultural therapy, request an intro call. Questions first is fine. Request an intro call and ask away.