Providing Psychotherapy in Rural Areas

Abstract

Residents in rural communities experience unique challenges in accessing and utilizing mental health care services. Providing services to members of rural communities is a social justice concern. Rural areas have a distinct culture with specific contextual stressors. This chapter highlights structural and systemic stressors and challenges that rural residents encounter, including the barriers to care that characterize rural residents’ help-seeking attitudes and behaviors, clinical work, as well as training and supervision. The authors illustrate ways that psychotherapists can increase their rural cultural competence in knowledge, awareness, and skills to help overcome these barriers. Innovative and empirically supported solutions for working in rural communities are provided. Recommendations are made for future research, clinical work, training programs, and models for rural mental health care.