On the Advantages of Cross-culture Psychotherapy: The Minority Therapist/Mainstream Patient Dyad

The personal quality of the therapist is a key element in therapy. In the case of the minority therapist, the difference in language and cultural background offers the patient unique benefits. Value orientations amongst cultures are similar enough for the minority therapist to acculturate. Through acculturation, the therapist becomes aware of a new set of value orientations. This cultural objectivity better enables the therapist to help the mainstream patient to see alternatives in coping with stresses of life, and to fortify the patient's adaptive skills. Because Western psychiatry and psychotherapy are culture-bound, mainstream therapists may easily be "culturally addicted," whereas a minority therapist can maintain cultural neutrality. Advantages discussed include language independence, culture independence, positive transference and analogous experiences.