Psychotherapy and Culture: Weaving Inner and Outer Worlds - Softcover

Eleftheriadou, Zack

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1855756250 ISBN 13: 9781855756250

Publisher: Routledge, 2010

Synopsis

this book focuses on cross-cultural relationships and examines how culture and racial factors manifest in the clinical setting. It discusses on how to work with both cross-cultural differentiation and integration.

About this title

About the Author

Zack Eleftheriadou holds an MSc in Child Development, MA in the Psychology of Therapy and Counselling, Diploma in Eating Disorders (NCFED), Diploma in Infant Mental Health, is a HPC Registered Psychologist (BPS Chartered Counselling Psychologist and a Chartered Scientist and a member of the BPS 'Register of Applied Psychology Practice Supervisors'), as well as an integrative psychotherapist, a psychoanalytic psychotherapist (UKCP registered), Professional Member of BACP, Regent's College School of Psychotherapy and Counselling and Nafsiyat: the Intercultural Therapy Centre (London). She has lectured since 1990 and has written extensively in the area of cross-cultural work and refugees. She has a private practice in North London, working clinically with children, families and adults, and supervising students.

Review

“Zack Eleftheriadou’s book seeks to integrate our clinical praxis with its sociopolitical context. It resists the temptation to offer a neatly packaged theoretical model or manualized treatment guideline. Instead it painstakingly deconstructs the macro-notions of "culture" and "race" and demonstrates their subtlety and intricacy as well as their ubiquitous presence in the clinical chamber. Deftly weaving ideas from cultural anthropology, social constructivism, existentialism, and psychoanalysis, Psychotherapy and Culture helps the reader look afresh and with the startled sense of discovery at clinical interventions with minority, immigrant, exiled, and refugee patients. A profound contribution indeed!” (Salman Akhtar, MD, Professor of Psychiatry, Jefferson Medical College; Training and Supervising Analyst)

“This book emphasises that all healing is cultural, in its own particular social and political context, rooted in particular notions of the person, of healing, of the family and other individuals, and in language and symbolisations. In the midst of all this, some sense of self emerges - and this of course is the particular concern of psychotherapy. The emphasis here is less on "the" correct approach (which can be a disabling conceit) as on our thinking about whatever happens, or doesn’t happen, in therapy - and then taking that into account. Particularly useful is the idea of migration and subsequent acculturation as a psychological journey for which the second and third generations offer variants. The authors offer a perspective which moves us away from an idea of pathology or problem to one that presents the minority experience as potentially creative, both for the individuals so poignantly concerned and for the rest of us. Truly an exciting journey.” (Roland Littlewood, Professor of Anthropology and Psychiatry)

“I see the contents of [this] book and the information provided within the chapters as a golden opportunity to engage with a subject which a decade ago might not have been accepted in the open and honest way the authors' discourse has been discussed. In the past, the contents of this book would have posed major challenges within the traditional field of psychoanalysis and in the psychodynamic counselling and psychotherapy world. The book covers a range of topics written from different perspectives. [It] is inclusive and topical within British society today, covering a range of views. Psychoanalysts/psychotherapists need to be aware of the issues of "race", culture and ethnicity and their impact in the transcultural/cross-cultural psychotherapeutic context. I see this book as a welcome opportunity to set the record straight and for the book to be part of a culturally appropriate practice in psychodynamic counselling and psychotherapy – wherein the primary beneficiaries are the users of psychoanalytic psychotherapy.” (Professor Zenobia Nadirshaw, Head of Psychology Services (the Learning Disability Services))

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 1855756250
• ISBN 13: 9781855756250
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 240