The August 2007 issue of the Journal of Clinical Psychology had an interesting series of articles looking at case studies of people who undergo psychotherapy around the world, including in Australia, Iran, Japan, South Africa, Argentina, Spain, Brunei, and Mexico.
The varied nature of these societies and their emphasis or stigmatization of mental health issues lends itself to a fascinating glimpse of how psychotherapy works (or doesn’t) in different settings.
For instance, psychodynamic approaches remain popular in many Spanish-speaking countries, but are slowly being replaced by more cognitive-behavioral therapies. The role of the family is also far more important, even in individual psychotherapy, than you typically see in the U.S., and so psychotherapy in countries like Iran have a heavy emphasis on how the family is a part of the problem and solution.
While the abstracts don’t do justice to the full articles, that is all that is available online (thanks dead-tree publishers!).
Comments
This post currently has 5 comments. You can read the comments or leave your own thoughts on our new comments page.
Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 7 Oct 2007
Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.
Grohol, J. (2007). How Psychotherapy is Conducted Around the World. Psych Central. Retrieved on February 14, 2012, from http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2007/10/07/how-psychotherapy-is-conducted-around-the-world/


Dr. John Grohol is the CEO and founder of Psych Central. He is an author, researcher and expert in mental health online, and has been writing about online behavior, mental health and psychology issues -- as well as the intersection of technology and human behavior -- since 1992. Dr. Grohol sits on the editorial board of the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking and is a founding board member and treasurer of the Society for Participatory Medicine.