Cultural Humility in Therapy Training: Practising with TheraMentor's Aisha Persona

Aisha, 29, has relocated to another country for work. She is struggling with loneliness and distance from people close to her. This is the short description of a TheraMentor educational AI client persona. How might you begin without assuming that you already know what relocation means to her?

The task is not to guess her cultural identity. It is to remain curious, open and willing to be corrected.

From cultural knowledge to cultural humility

Cultural knowledge can broaden understanding, but it does not provide a reliable script for what any individual person thinks or feels. Cultural humility describes an interpersonal stance of respect, openness and the absence of superiority toward another person's cultural background.

Research by Hook and colleagues (2013) links perceived therapist cultural humility with working alliance. It does not justify assuming that everyone who has experienced migration has the same needs.

Two responses worth comparing

Aisha says: “I don't feel like I truly belong anywhere here.”

Assumption-led response: “You must really miss the culture of your home country.”

Exploratory response: “That sense of not belonging sounds painful. What does it look like for you in everyday life?”

The first assigns a meaning that has not been established. The second attempts to learn the meaning from the person. Another option could be: “What helps you feel connected to people here?”—without predicting the answer.

A practical exercise with TheraMentor

TheraMentor presents Aisha as a persona navigating relocation and belonging. You can use the scenario to practise communication, not to claim expertise about a particular culture.

1. Begin with the intention: “I will not assume what relocation means before exploring it.”
2. Watch for phrases such as “always,” “everyone” or “in your culture” when they are not grounded in the client's words.
3. Try one tentative reflection and one open question in the first exchanges.
4. Use message feedback (“Δες σχόλιο”) to examine a specific reply and the post-session reflection to identify assumptions.
5. Ask what you would still need to learn from the actual client in a real therapeutic encounter.

The bias risk in AI clients

Language models can reproduce stereotypes or present one experience as typical when it is not. Aisha is an educational construct, not a representative sample of people who relocate across borders. A useful post-session question is therefore: “What assumptions did the simulation itself make?”

Practise respect for individual experience

Cultural humility does not require knowing someone's story in advance. It requires not replacing their story with yours. Use TheraMentor to practise curiosity, listening and revising your assumptions.

Begin an educational role-play.