HOW DOES INTERCULTURAL PSYCHOTHERAPY DIFFER FROM MAINSTREAM PSYCHOTHERAPY?

By Lila Ramsahai, Intercultural Psychotherapist and Life Coach 

Clients will typically discuss the same issues in both types of therapies (mainstream and intercultural). However, culturally diverse clients often also discuss some additional issues concerning their race, cultural heritage, identity or language usage in Intercultural Psychotherapy.

WHICH ADDITIONAL ISSUES DO PEOPLE DISCUSS IN INTERCULTURAL PSYCHOTHERAPY?

Culturally diverse clients can often discuss the following issues in sessions – anxieties, depression, worries, abuse, family issues, intimacy, arranged marriage, family pressures, family honour, honour killings, cultural identity, identity crisis, the effects of multicultural and multilingual upbringing, coping with bi-racial identity, loss of mother tongue and mother tongue biases, belonging, language usage, racism, race and ethnicity, mixed-race upbringing, hybrid identity, isolation, acculturation, cultural values, cross-cultural parenting and more.

 (Photo by Christophe Maertens on Unsplash)