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Cultural Intelligence for Psychologists: Working Effectively with CALD & Muslim clients


Working therapeutically with culturally diverse young people & their families

 Cultural competence for Psychologists and other Mental health practitioners is no longer an elective skill. It is a distinct practice standard expected of APRHA registered practitioners to work effectively with clients from all walks of life.

This training aims to assist you to work effectively with young people and their families from diverse cultures and develop familiarity with culturally safe tools, therapies and frameworks from which you can more competently engage, counsel, assess and treat your culturally diverse clients.

Sue et al. (1982) has stipulated 3 main competencies as requirements for mental health professionals to work effectively cross-culturally: Self-awareness, cultural awareness & intercultural skills.  

Learning Outcomes:   Part 1: Self Awareneness

  • Lift the veil on your own culturally informed strengths and vulnerabilities.
  • Is ‘fluent Western’ the only non-verbal language you speak? Or perhaps you are bi-cultural?

Part 2: Cultural Awareness & Intercultural Skill

  • Unpack the influence of building trust & rapport using cultural knowledge to develop ‘the therapeutic relationship’ and achieve client outcomes.
  • Understand the relationship between decreasing stigma and uptake of mental health services from CALD communities.

Part 3: Intercultural skills in Psychological Practice 

  • Learn how a strengths-based and positive psychology approach engages CALD clients in therapy
  • Identify cultural bias inherent in Psychometric testing & how to navigate cultural norms & a DSM-V diagnosis
  • Cross-cultural counselling skills
  • Engage communities and community leaders in wellbeing education

 Who Should Attend: This workshop is suitable for practitioners who work as Psychologists in clinical settings and schools.

Trainer:  Monique is a Certified Cultural Intelligence (CQ) advisor working across government, corporate & community sectors in Australia, Indonesia and Malaysia.  She has trained over 300 organisations in the area of cultural competence.  She is a Psychologist in private practice and lectures in Cross Cultural Counselling at the Australian Catholic University. She is a current committee member of the Psychology & Culture Interest Group for the Australian Psychological Society. For the last 20 years she has worked with over 40 different Muslim organisations, including appointment as a board member to the Islamic Council of Victoria in 2014 & 2015. She is Author of the book  ‘Without You: Rising above the impact of an abusive relationship’ and in 2015 was the recipient of the International Women’s Day ‘Honouring Women in Moreland Awards’ for her capacity building work with women.  She has been seen on ABC TV, Lateline, featured in The Australian, The Age, The Herald-Sun, ABC & 3AW radio.