Defense Date

10-22-2025

Graduation Date

Fall 12-20-2025

Availability

Immediate Access

Submission Type

dissertation

Degree Name

PhD

Department

Counselor Education and Supervision (ExCES)

School

School of Education

Committee Chair

Jered Kolbert

Committee Member

Michael Sickels

Committee Member

Gibbs Kanyongo

Keywords

counseling, cultural humility, racial identity, ethnic identity, multicultural competence, multicultural counseling, multicultural orientation, treatment satisfaction

Abstract

A wealth of clinical research has uncovered the presence of mental health treatment disparities and a lack of treatment consistency when working with clients of dissimilar identities. The purpose of this dissertation study was to investigate potential causes for the observed disparities minoritized individuals have experienced and understand if cultural humility was a variable that affected mental health treatment satisfaction when counselor-client had dissimilar cultural identities. This was achieved through the following research questions: (1) What is the relationship between the extent of client perceived racial/ethnic similarity within the therapeutic dyad and client-rated mental health treatment satisfaction? (2) What is the relationship between client ratings of perceived counselor cultural humility and client-rated mental health treatment satisfaction? And (3) Do client-rated perceptions of cultural humility of the counselor moderate the relationship between the extent of client perceived racial/ethnic identity similarity within the therapeutic dyad and client-rated mental health treatment satisfaction? Interpretations of the results indicated a very weak and insignificant relationship (r = -.079, p = .551) between the extent of client perceived racial/ethnic similarity within the therapeutic dyad and client-rated mental health treatment satisfaction. A moderately strong and significant relationship (r = .571, p = .001) was found for the variables of client ratings of perceived counselor cultural humility and client-rated mental health treatment satisfaction. Last, a very small and insignificant moderating effect (b = .000, SEb = .000, β = .000, p = .600) of client-rated perceptions of cultural humility of the counselor was discovered on the variables of the extent of client perceived racial/ethnic identity similarity within the therapeutic dyad and client-rated mental health treatment satisfaction. The implications of the findings, limitations of the study, and recommendations for future research were discussed.

Language

English

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