All the parts make the whole: using the relational worldview to develop holistic practice

Client assessments are a necessary part of the therapeutic relationship. The requirements for Medi-Cal billing and opening a client to services result in mandated forms that seem counter-intuitive to a strengths-based, client focused approach. Adapting Terry Cross's Relational Worldview Model to the standardized required assessments used by Humboldt County Mental Health may serve to not only as a means of deepening cultural appropriateness for American Indian clients, but widen the breadth of client-focused services for the local mentally ill population as well. More importantly, this adaptation of a relational approach may be readily implemented by individual clinicians into their standard assessment process.