Bringing Psychotherapy to the Underserved Challenges and Strategies

Bringing Psychotherapy to the Underserved examines the challenging problem of providing psychotherapy services to underserved, often marginalized populations, both within and outside of the US. The book begins by addressing systemic factors that prevent certain populations from accessing services (health system issues, issues relating to the military, and natural and man-made disasters). Expert contributors then addresses those underserved due to discrimination (ethnic minorities, the economically disadvantaged, sexual and gender minorities, and so on). The following section of the book focuses on populations in transition and in undeserved locations (civilians and refugees of war, immigrants, and those in rural areas). Next are addressed those people who are often overlooked, such as children, older adults, and those with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Each of these chapters discusses the scope of the problem, barriers to service delivery, creating cultural competency, effective strategies and empirically-supported treatments, and future steps. The book closes by addressing ethical and research challenges relevant to bringing psychotherapy services to these groups.

Jeffrey Zimmerman has provided psychotherapy for over 35 years. In 2017 he was President of the Society for the Advancement of Psychotherapy, Division 29 of the American Psychological Association. One of his presidential initiatives was a focus on bringing psychotherapy to the underserved.

Jeffrey E. Barnett is a licensed psychologist who has been in practice for 35 years. He is a distinguished practitioner of the National Academies of Practice, as well as the Associate Dean for the Social Sciences and Graduate Programs in the College of Arts and Sciences of Loyola University Maryland.

Linda F. Campbell is a professor of counseling psychology in the College of Education at the University of Georgia where she is also director of the Center for Counseling training clinic, which serves a regional population. She is vice-president of the Georgia State Board of Examiners of Psychologists and the chair of the APA Ethics Code Revision Task Force.

Section 1: Underserved by Systemic Factors

Chapter 1: Health Systems Issues and the Underserved
Gordon I. Herz and Charles Gaba

Chapter 2: Delivering Psychological Services to Military Members
K.C. Kalmbach and Bret A. Moore

Chapter 3: Delivering Mental Health Assistance in the Wake of Natural and Man-Made Disasters
Alec Cecil

Section 2: Underserved Due to Discrimination

Chapter 4: Serving the Underserved: Delivering Culturally Appropriate Psychotherapy to Racial and Ethnic Minorities
Changming Duan

Chapter 5: Bringing Psychotherapy to People Living in Poverty
Linda F. Campbell and Emily Selby-Nelson

Chapter 6: Out of the Shadows: Improving Health Care for Sexual Minority and Gender Diverse Individuals
Douglas C. Haldeman

Chapter 7: Delivering Psychological Services to Religious and Spiritual Clients
Gina Magyar-Russell

Section 3: People in Transition and Underserved Locations

Chapter 8: Delivering Psychological Services to Refugees Resettled in the United States
Johanna Nilsson, Sally Stratmann, Aurora Molitoris, Marcella A. Beaumont and Jessica Horine

Chapter 9: Bringing Psychotherapy to Immigrants
Hamid Mirsalimi

Chapter 10: Providing Psychotherapy in Rural Areas
Tracy J. Cohn and Pei-Chun Tsai

Chapter 11: Responding to the Mental Health Needs of Underserved Latin Americans
Héctor Fernández Álvarez, Maria del Pilar Grazioso, Diana Kirszman, Meri Lubina and Rodney Goodyear

Section 4: Overlooked or "Invisible" Peoples

Chapter 12: Delivering Mental Health Services to Children and Adolescents
Ric G. Steele

Chapter 13: Psychotherapy with the Underserved Older Adult Population
Susan Krauss Whitbourne and Bruna Martins

Chapter 14: Psychotherapy for Developmental Disabilities
Jonathan M. Campbell and Angela Scarpa

Section 5: Other Challenges

Chapter 15: Ethics Issues and Challenges When Bringing Psychotherapy to the Underserved
Jeffrey E. Barnett

Chapter 16: From Exploratory to Experimental: Matching Method to Need in Research with Underserved Populations
Elizabeth Nutt Williams