What do we mean by cultural competence? When a patient from a different culture who's sitting in front of us, what do we need to know? Cultural competence is about understanding the patient's cultural interpretation of what they are going through. It's about understanding what their cultural needs may be and what the cultural differences and similarities are. Cultural competence is about understanding the concept of culture and how it influences human interactions, human behaviour and expressions of distress and how do cultures evaluate that behaviour? It's about demonstrating an openness and willingness to learn about other cultures by the clinician and the therapist. It's about understanding the cultural base of distress, the beliefs and emotions and thoughts and gestures and verbal communication. It's about a clear willingness to look at cultural differences. It's about demonstrating that ability. It's also about demonstrating the ability to identify culturally appropriate strategies that the patient and their families can use to manage. Cultural competence requires cultural knowledge, knowing the strengths and weaknesses of the culture and in order to achieve that, there needs to be a degree of cultural sensitivity in understanding what the patient is experiencing and which will help the clinician create cultural empathy. That, in turn, will produce culturally appropriate interactions with the patient, their families, and carers, and it's also about being aware of one's own culture. So the therapist needs to be aware of their own likes, dislikes and prejudices. It's about being aware of one's own cultural identity and multiple micro-identities. It's about an ability to be neutral and non-judgemental. It's about learning about other cultures. It's about being aware of the differences and similarities. The therapist also must take into account that we all have tendencies to idealise one or the other culture, all cultures have their own strengths and weaknesses.