Cultural equity: Bridging the complexity of social identities with therapeutic practices— Rhea Almeida, Pilar Hernández-Wolfe and Carolyn Tubbs

In this article we propose the construct of cultural equity to guide family and community therapeutic work that addresses social and interpersonal complexity from a social justice perspective. Cultural equity encompasses the multiplicity of personal, social, and institutional locations that frame identities in therapeutic practice by locating these complexities within a societal matrix that shapes relationships: power, privilege, and oppression. We locate our work vis-à-vis the cultural competence movement to situate cultural equity theoretically and politically. We illustrate the application of cultural equity in therapy and discuss implications for theory and practice.