Australian mental health care practitioners' construing of non-White and White people: implications for cultural competence and therapeutic alliance.

The results reinforce the need for mental health care workers to develop cultural competence with a focus on developing awareness of the impact of frameworks of Whiteness on the experiences of non-White people. This is central to the development of a therapeutic alliance where clients feel understood and assured that their mental health concerns will not be constructed (and treated) through a framework that constrains both White and non-White people's opportunities for improved mental health and wellbeing.