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The Value of Curiosity and Naiveté for the Cross‐Cultural Psychotherapist
Author(s) -
DYCHE LARRY,
ZAYAS LUIS H.
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
family process
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.011
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1545-5300
pISSN - 0014-7370
DOI - 10.1111/j.1545-5300.1995.00389.x
Subject(s) - curiosity , psychology , scholarship , cultural diversity , vulnerability (computing) , diversity (politics) , cross cultural psychology , alliance , value (mathematics) , cultural competence , power (physics) , experiential learning , narrative , social psychology , psychotherapist , sociology , pedagogy , anthropology , linguistics , philosophy , physics , computer security , quantum mechanics , machine learning , political science , computer science , law
Therapists today face a dramatic increase in the cultural diversity of their client populations. Cultural literacy, long the dominant model for preparing to do cross‐cultural therapy, advocates study of the prospective client's history and culture. This model, however, poses logistical problems, emphasizes scholarship over the experiential and phenomenological, and risks seeing clients as their culture and not as themselves. In this essay, we argue that teaching culture alone can obscure therapists’ view of human diversity. To balance the cognitive model of preparation, a process‐oriented approach is considered, whereby the therapists’ attitudes of cultural naiveté and respectful curiosity are given equal importance to knowledge and skill. We begin from a concern with clients’ vulnerability in the power distribution that inevitably exists in therapy, especially with immigrant and marginalized populations. The use of acculturation narratives, which the therapist explores with naiveté and curiosity, helps clients to find their voices.