Making Sense of the Cultural Formation Interview

Posted on by

Tuesday, January 27, 2026
WebinarRegister Now
9am – 12 pm
3 CECs on cultural competency

Registration Fee: $75
10% discount for UConn SSW Alumni and Current SSW Field Instructors

Culture shows up in every session—whether we name it or not. Making Sense of the Cultural Formulation Interview (CFI) is a practical, clinically grounded training for mental health professionals who want to strengthen cultural humility, improve diagnostic accuracy, and build stronger therapeutic alliances. Culture impacts how distress is experienced, expressed, interpreted, and treated—yet it’s often left unspoken in assessment. The CFI offers a structured, respectful way to explore meaning, context, strengths, stressors, and help-seeking preferences without turning culture into a checklist or relying on assumptions. In this training, you’ll learn what the CFI is, why it was developed, and how to integrate it into intake, case conceptualization, diagnosis, and treatment planning in a way that feels natural and collaborative. You’ll also work through a case vignette, and leave with strategies you can apply immediately with clients across settings.

Learning Objectives:

  • Define the Cultural Formulation Interview (CFI) and explain how it supports culturally responsive assessment, diagnosis, and treatment planning.
  • Describe the purpose and historical context of the CFI within the DSM-5 Cultural Formulation framework, including its role in reducing misdiagnosis and bias.
  • Select and apply CFI questions in real clinical settings using a flexible, time-efficient approach.
  • Translate CFI findings into clinical action by integrating client meaning, strengths, stressors, and help-seeking preferences into case conceptualization and collaborative treatment planning.