Many white psychotherapists may lack the skills required to work effectively with service users from minoritised ethnicities. This article proposes that the nature of this skills deficit can be understood through applying the Declarative-Procedural-Reflective (DPR) model of therapist skill development. The DPR model has been used in a range of psychotherapeutic contexts, and it provides a systematic account of how therapists from all modalities develop and can improve their skills. Adapting this model to white therapists’ skills in working with service users from minoritised ethnicities allows the identification of specific areas of skills deficit, and therefore clear recommendations as to how to address those deficits. The application of the DPR model to this context suggests that there are clear areas of skills deficit in terms of knowledge base, the practical skills of carrying out therapy, and the ability of therapists to reflect on their work with service users from minoritised ethnicities. I conclude by making a number of suggestions as to how those deficits could be addressed, both by individual therapists and at a systemic level.

Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) in its current form might not be acceptable to service users from a variety of backgrounds. Therefore, it makes sense to adapt CBT when working with diverse populations. Contributors to this special issue of the Cognitive Behaviour Therapist have tackled the issues around the cultural adaptation of CBT from various perspectives, using a variety of methods, and have addressed topics ranging from cultural adaptation to improving access to CBT. Here, I briefly summarize and discuss the papers in this special issue. I start with a systematic review of CBT for social anxiety across cultures. Seven articles cover aspects of adaptation of therapies for people from different backgrounds. Three papers discuss the issues of gender and sexuality when using CBT, while another three papers focus on refugees, asylum seekers and the homeless, and two papers describe the application of CBT with religious populations. Finally, there are seven papers on issues related to service delivery, practice and training and supervision when working with a diverse population. Collectively, papers in this special issue provide us with sufficient evidence that cultural considerations play a vital role when using CBT, offer practical suggestions for improving cultural competence and most importantly, can catalyse future research. However, the full potential of culturally adapted interventions will not be realized until and unless access to CBT is improved. Therefore, there is a need to build robust evidence to convince funders, policy makers and service managers.