Career Decision-Making Processes and Cultural Perspectives from East-Asian Counselling Psychologists in Canada
Date
2022-09
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Abstract
This study explores the career decision-making processes of East Asian psychologists in Canada, documents their perspective on cultural competency education at the graduate level, and discuss implications for recruiting and training future counselling psychologists to better meet the mental health needs of East Asian communities and individuals. This study is a qualitative research based on semi-structured interviews with 10 participants in Canada: five practicing counselling psychologists and five counselling psychology graduate students, all from East Asian backgrounds. Through a qualitative thematic analysis, salient themes revolving around participants’ career decision-making experiences, their experiences in graduate training programs, as well as their professional experiences were identified. These themes point to gaps between existing mental health practices in counselling psychology and the cultural experiences of East Asian individuals. They highlight the need for promoting diverse representation in the field of professional psychology, as well as addressing deficits in cultural competency training in counselling psychology programs in Canada. This research provides a unique perspective from a group of minority psychologists regarding ways to enhance the recruiting and training psychologists from more diverse cultural backgrounds to promote equity, diversity, and inclusiveness in the field of counselling psychology.
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Keywords
Equity, diversity, and inclusion, East Asian, Career development, Cultural influences, Intersectionality research, Qualitative research
Citation
Maria, K. (2022). Career decision-making processes and cultural perspectives from East-Asian counselling psychologists in Canada (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.