Shifting from Cultural Competence to Cultural Humility

This might be a broad statement.

But here it goes: as therapist and social worker in today's fast-paced world, I want to emphasize that cultural competence is impossible to achieve.

I would instead gravitate toward the term cultural humility.

A shift from cultural competence to cultural humility allows for the presence of fluidity and subjectivity of culture to be an active engagement in a lifelong process. Cultural competence implies an endpoint or complete knowing.

Indeed, baseline knowledge and the history of cultures are beneficial to know in navigating our relationships with others. However, cultural humility offers the idea that we cannot be competent in every aspect of a culture and that it is okay to 'not know.'

On the flip side, I have had discussions with culturally diverse clients who explain their experiences of engaging with privileged people with dominant identities who bring ignorant questions.

This client might say something like "it is not my job to educate people".

This example of withdrawal is a form of self-preservation. It is used to avoid feeling drained and burnt-out by re-telling experiences of information that may be easily researched or learned on individual time.

What are your thoughts on the shift between competence and humility?

Comment below and let me know!

References

Fisher-Borne, M., Cain, M. J., & Martin, L. S. (2015). From mastery to accountability: cultural humility as an alternative to cultural competence. Social Work Education, 34(2), 165–181. https://doi.org/10.1080/02615479.2014.977244

Schaap, A. (2020). Do you not see the reason yourself? political withdrawal and the experience of epistemic friction. Political Studies, 68(3), 565-581. DOI: 10.1177/0032321719873865

Sperry, J., & Sperry, L. (2018). Diversity and CBT Practice. Cognitive behavior therapy in counseling practice. Routledge Taylor & Francis Group.