PCSP is a peer reviewed, open-access journal and database. It provides innovative, quantitative and qualitative knowledge about psychotherapy process and outcome. PCSP is published by the National Register of Health Service Psychologists.
June, 2024 -- see our newest case, Addressing Child Maltreatment by Infusing Multicultural, Feminist Tenets to Standard Clinical Approaches: The Cases of “Bashiir” and “Jaquann.”
Click on the upper left button for the “Newest Case" or the button labeled "Current."
Click on "CE Exams On Case Studies" below for an Exam on the current issue's case study and on past issues' case studies.
The Case Studies
June 28, 2024 -- FROM THE EDITOR
ANNOUNCING THE PUBLICATION OF OUR 68th ISSUE (Vol. 20, Module 2)
"The Commitment of a Lifetime": The Role of Emotionally Focused Couple
Therapy in Strengthening Attachment Bonds and Improving Relationship Health in Later-Life Couples --The Teletherapy Case of "Alice" and "Steve"
*** Rachel Singer, Psychological Associates, Rockville, MD,
*** Rene DeBoard-Lucas, Trauma, Resilience, Understanding, and Education (TRUE) Center,
Washington, DC, &
*** Milton Fuentes, Montclair State University, Montclair, NJ
Commentaries
*** Renata Fire, Private Practice, Rockville, MD
*** Melissa Phillips,Sphere Psychological Services, Bowie, MD
EDITOR'S NOTE
Multicultural psychology emphasizes the role of social, cultural, and gender forces in creating an individual’s identity; the social and cultural world in which they live; and the psychological strengths that different cultures have to offer. In a complementary way, feminist psychology highlights the importance of collectivist alternatives to mainstream, individualistic thinking in the U.S.; and the identification and dismantling of patriarchal power structures that oppress women.
Combining these two in a multicultural, feminist approach to psychotherapy highlights the importance of relating to clients with an understanding of, sensitivity to, respect for, and responsiveness to their cultural identities and life situations. This also involves the therapist building on strengths that come from some cultures bringing a collectivist rather than an individualist orientation to life’s challenges, such as combating child maltreatment.
To illustrate the potential of a multicultural, feminist approach to psychotherapy in cases of child maltreatment among minority individuals, the present article offers two highly successful case studies. The first involves “Bashiir,” a 16-year-old African, first-generation immigrant young man from Somalia; and the second involves “Jaquaan,” a 15-year-old African American young man.
Both clients were referred to therapy because of poor school attendance and academic difficulties, and associated symptoms consistent with a Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) diagnosis. These symptoms derived from the clients having lived in poor, dangerous, high crime communities.
A crucial component in both cases was the process by which the therapist employed the multicultural feminist approach to cross age, racial, gender, and socioeconomic-class lines to establish a very strong, trusting relationship between the therapist and the client; and between the therapist and the clients’ families.
*** For a Table of Contents and pdf links to the articles, click on the upper left button labeled "Newest Case" or the button labeled "Current."
