This qualitative study aims to explore how counsellors and psychotherapists from ethnic-minority backgrounds experience and make sense of mental-health-related stigma within their cultural, familial, and community contexts, and how these lived experiences may shape their therapeutic work with clients from similar cultural or ethnic backgrounds.

Mental-health-related stigma, often shaped by culturally embedded beliefs and wider social contexts, has been found to discourage disclosure, delay help-seeking, and contribute to poorer outcomes, with these effects further intensified by structural inequalities and discrimination within services (Abdullah & Brown, 2011; Ahad et al., 2023). In line with this, research consistently indicates that people from Black, Asian, and other ethnic-minority communities are less likely to access psychological support, more likely to enter services at points of crisis, and frequently report lower levels of trust and cultural safety within mental-health settings (Mercer et al., 2019; Nwokoroku et al., 2022). While a substantial body of research has examined stigma and help-seeking among ethnic-minority clients, considerably less attention has been paid to therapists from minoritised backgrounds who may themselves have navigated similar cultural messages, expectations, and experiences of stigma.

This study therefore seeks to address this gap by giving voice to underrepresented practitioners within the literature and explore how their lived experiences may inform their therapeutic stance, relational attunement, and practice with culturally similar clients. It is hoped that the findings will inform counselling training and service delivery, and support more culturally responsive, inclusive, and accessible therapeutic practice for ethnic-minority communities.

Data will be collected through one-to-one semi-structured interviews lasting approximately 75 minutes. Interviews will be conducted online via Microsoft Teams at a mutually convenient time and will invite participants to reflect on how they have encountered and made sense of mental-health-related stigma within their cultural, familial, or community contexts, and how these experiences may influence their therapeutic stance, use of self, and work with clients from similar backgrounds.

With participants’ consent, interviews will be video-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis.

You are eligible to take part if you:
• are aged 18 or over
• are currently practising in the UK
• have completed an accredited counselling or psychotherapy training programme
• self-identify as from an ethnic-minority background
• have experience working with ethnic-minority clients Practitioners from any theoretical orientation and practice setting are welcome.

Ethical approval for this study has been granted by Staffordshire University’s Research Ethics Committee. All data will be kept confidential and stored securely in line with GDPR and university policy, and participation is entirely voluntary.

If you are interested in sharing your lived experiences, or have any questions, you are very welcome to get in touch by emailing me.
Alternatively, you may wish to read the attached Participant Information Sheet for further details.

Thank you for your time, and I look forward to hearing from you.