I found this useful abstract below around the idea of culture specific vs. universal approaches to therapy:

Some tension appears to exist in the literature between the emic, or culturally specific, and etic, or universal, approaches to counseling with culturally different clients. Prompted by the lack of clear theoretical models for multicultural counseling, as well as by the inability of specific factors to explain treatment effectiveness in general, we suggest that consideration of the common factors found in psychotherapy and healing across cultures provides a useful way to bridge the gap between culturally specific and universal approaches. We believe that the skeleton of universal healing factors requires the flesh of cultural knowledge, resulting in the formulation of multicultural counseling as universal healing processes taking place in a culturally sensitive context. We propose that this perspective (a) may serve as a framework for unifying the diverse body of multi-cultural counseling literature, (b) has some empirical support, and (c) may be useful in guiding future multicultural research, training, and practice.

Found in:
The Counseling Psychologist, Vol. 26, No. 4, 525-588 (1998)
DOI: 10.1177/0011000098264001

Reconceptualizing Multicultural Counseling
Universal Healing Conditions in a Culturally Specific Context

Ann R. Fischer, University of Akron, annlO@uakron.edu

LaRae M. Jome,University of Akron

Donald R. Atkinson, University of California, Santa BarbaraFischer