Cross-Culturai Couples Counseling: A Developmental, Psychoeducational Intervention

Abstract

This article presents an intervention for couples who come from two different cultural backgrounds. The approach emphasizes that the therapist have knowledge of culture-specific strategies, general knowledge of the cultures involved (including the counselor or therapist’s), and information regarding each person’s world view, i.e., beliefs, values, assumptions, and expectations involved in the therapeutic encounter. An instrument and a strategy for assessing world views is discussed. Additionally, a cultural, developmental, psychoeducational approach, emphasizing communication, is presented. The goal of the approach is to enhance the cross-cultural effectiveness of the couple, by helping each partner understand the world view of the other, and by teaching a crosscultural communication model that will faciliate their understanding of self, life stage, and family developmental stage, and culturally appropriate problem-solving and conflict resolution strategies. The outcome should reflect a general acceptance of each other as “cultural beings”.