CULTURALLY SENSITIVE ASSERTIVENESS TRAINING FOR ETHNIC-MINORITY CLIENTS

This article serves as a comprehensive resource to help bridge the gap of cultural understanding for those using assertiveness training with ethnic minority clients. Therapists providing cross-cultural assertive training must be certain that gaining such skills is a value shared by the client and not imposed by the therapist. A more culturally appropriate approach includes the following general assessment strategies: determining the etiology of the lack of assertiveness; using self-report inventories that avoid words, slang, or situations that may not be meaningful to the client; and developing norms for the cultural group for which the inventory will be used. General treatment strategies may include "message matching," backup assertion, and discriminitive cue learning. Specific strategies that are relevant for each cultural group are discussed.