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Family Therapy with East Indian Immigrant Parents Rearing Children in the United States: PARENTAL CONCERNS, THERAPEUTIC ISSUES, AND RECOMMENDATIONS

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Abstract

The paper focuses on East Indian immigrant parents and some of the post-immigration difficulties they experience in their attempts to rear culturally East Indian children within the United States cultural context. Concerns specific to parenting children in the US, and therapeutic issues East Indian immigrant parents bring to therapy are presented and discussed. Effective therapy with East Indian immigrant families requires that therapists be flexible in their therapeutic approaches with these families, and become more knowledgeable about the varieties of East Indian families, their cultural beliefs, values, and norms. Recommendations for culturally effective therapy are offered.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Senior Psychologist, New Mexico Corrections Department, 2709 Sim Ave., Las Cruces, NM, 88005, USA

    David A. Baptiste

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  1. David A. Baptiste
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Correspondence to David A. Baptiste.

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David A. Baptiste, PhD, is Senior Psychologist, New Mexico Corrections Department, and in the private practice of Marital and Family Therapy, 2709 Sim Ave. Las Cruces, NM 88005 (DAB2709@aol.com).

*The author is an immigrant from Guyana, South America, an Indian diaspora country. The experiences and observations discussed here are culled from 30 years of clinical practice in several US locations with a variety of East Indian Families from the Indian subcontinent and other diaspora countries.

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Baptiste, D.A. Family Therapy with East Indian Immigrant Parents Rearing Children in the United States: PARENTAL CONCERNS, THERAPEUTIC ISSUES, AND RECOMMENDATIONS. Contemp Fam Ther 27, 345–366 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10591-005-6214-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10591-005-6214-9

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