This is a condensed introductory version of the full East Meets West workshop, designed to introduce key ideas, reflective prompts, and practical considerations for integrating culture into schema therapy practice with Asian heritage clients.

This workshop explores the gaps and bridges between Western therapeutic principles and Eastern/Asian cultural values. While Western psychology has undoubtedly advanced mental health care, therapy is not a one-size-fits-all approach. The workshop aims to promote culturally responsive practice by examining how cultural values, beliefs, and lived experiences shape assessment, formulation, engagement, and intervention.

The workshop will explore challenges that clinicians often report in practice, including balancing individual goals with family and filial expectations, navigating shame and “saving face,” and recognising different ways distress and help-seeking are expressed. It will also invite attendees to consider migration and acculturation stories, intergenerational roles, and how therapist–client assumptions about authority, autonomy, and emotional expression play out in the therapy room.

Using a schema-focused lens, attendees will be introduced to ways of adapting case conceptualisation and experiential methods, such as imagery rescripting and chairwork, for cultural fit and client safety. Attendees can expect a mix of brief input, guided practice, and reflective discussion, grounded in CARM frameworks.