Understanding Cultural Barriers to Psychotherapy: The Case of Saudi Arabia

This study seeks to explore the gap between mental health services and getting people into therapy. Therefore, this study has analyzed the barriers to psychotherapy in Saudi Arabia. This study has focused on identifying the causes and obstacles that prevents people from considering psychotherapy for mental health. Barriers to Mental Health Services Scale (BMHSS) was used and questionnaire was developed to measure barriers to mental health services. 128 participants residing in KSA were surveyed to explore possible barriers to psychotherapy within the Saudi context. The study concludes that stigma was the least barrier to psychotherapy, while Help-seeking and Insurance/payment concerns are the biggest obstacles for utilizing mental health services. Transportation was considered greater obstacle to therapy for women than men, whereas men perceived confidence in therapist's qualification to be a greater barrier than women. Participants who had never been in therapy before perceived help seeking to be a greater barrier compared to those who sought therapy in the past.CCS Concepts• Information systems