Culture and Psychotherapy: A Psychosocial Framework for Analysis

Abstract

Culture possesses multiple functions in psychotherapeutic processes: (1) it creates specific sources of stress, (2) it provides specific modes of coping with distress, (3) it governs social responses to distress and disability, (4) it defines the symptoms of distress and psychopathology, (5) it determines the interpretation of symptoms and their subsequent biological, psychological, and social impacts, (6) it guides help-seeking and the response to treatment, and (7) it shapes the meaning of the illness experience. Psychotherapy, therefore, involves processes that are informed by the patient's culture. Indigenous psychotherapies could be found in many societies and they may be used alone or in conjunction with Western modalities of treatment. In the Philippines, psychotherapists largely employ
Western models of psychotherapy.

This paper describes some indigenous healing rituals and discusses the psychosocial framework that lends efficacy in the treatment modalities for psychological problems. Furthermore, this paper also aims to integrate this framework into the current practice of psychotherapy in the Philippines and provide recommendations vis-a-vis training, service, and research in the field of psychotherapy.