Abstract
How do family therapy practitioners of marginalized faiths navigate the polarizing political contexts of North America while being responsive to self, other, and our communities? Saliha, raised as a Sunni Muslim woman in India reflects on this question with Kiran who was raised as a Sikh woman in Canada on what it means to become a family therapist in the United States. We reflect on how our families’ religious views weave into our identities as therapists at the intersection of immigration, nationality, ethnicity and politics. We explore the interconnectedness of identity-making and context as dynamic relational processes. Further, we illustrate the reflective performative power of shaping identity via writing, and share four practice implications based on our lived experiences of negotiating the personal, political, professional, and spiritual as therapists. We conclude with clinical and teaching examples to illustrate these implications. In the face of dominant discourses and overt social oppression that deny the spirituality embodied in our religious identities, this is a work of resistance!
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
2011 Census. (n.d.). C-1 population by religious community. Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. Retrieved from http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/C-01.html
Adichie, C. (2009). Chimamanda Adichie: The danger of a single story [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story.html
Anderson, H. (1997). Conversation, language, and possibilities: A postmodern approach to therapy. New York: Basic Books.
Anderson, H. (1999). Collaborative learning communities. In S. McNamee & K. J. Gergen (Eds.), Relational responsibility: Resources for sustainable dialogue (pp. 65–70). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Arora, K. S. K. (2013). Reflections on the experiences of turbaned Sikh men in the aftermath of 9/11. Journal for Social Action in Counseling and Psychology, 5(1), 116–121.
Bakhtin, M. M. (1981). The dialogic imagination: Four essays. (M. Holquist, Ed., C. Emerson & M. Holquist, Trans.). [Kindle Edition]. Amazon.com
Bava, S. (2016). Making of a spiritual/religious hyperlinked identity. In D. Bidwell (Ed.), Spirituality, social construction and social processes: Essays and reflections (pp. 1–17). Chargin Falls, OH: Taos Institute Publication.
Bava, S. (2017). Creativity in couple and family therapy. In J. L . Lebow, A. L. Chambers, & D. Breunlin (Eds.), Encyclopedia of couple and family therapy. New York: Springer. Available at: https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-3-319-15877-8_226-1.
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The psychology of optimal experience. New York: Harper & Row.
Cutts, M. (2000). The state of the world’s refugees 2000: Fifty years of humanitarian action. Geneva: UNHCR.
Gergen, K. (2016). Constructing spirit, spiritualizing construction. In D. Bidwell (Ed.), Spirituality, social construction and social processes: Essays and reflections (pp. 68–86). Chargin Falls, OH: Taos Institute Publication.
Hardy, K. V., & Laszloffy, T. A. (2002). Couple therapy using a multicultural perspective. In A. S. Gurman & N. S. Jacobson (Eds.), Clinical handbook of couple therapy (3rd ed., pp. 569–593). New York: Guilford Press.
Hines, P. (2016). The life cycle of economically fragile families. In M. McGoldrick, N. G. Preto, & B. Carter (Eds.), The expanded family life cycle: Individual, family and social perspectives (pp. 99–117). Boston: Pearson.
McGoldrick, M., Giordano, J., & Preto, N. G. (2005). Ethnicity and family therapy (3rd ed.). New York: Guilford Press.
McNamee, S. (2004). Therapy as social construction. In T. Strong & D. Pare (Eds.), Furthering talk: Advances in the discursive therapies (pp. 253–270). New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Press.
Petry, S. (2016). Spirituality and the family life cycle. In M. McGoldrick, N. G. Preto, & B. Carter (Eds.), The expanded family life cycle: Individual, family and social perspectives (pp. 156–171). Boston: Pearson.
Rivett, M., & Street, E. (2001). Connections and themes of spirituality in family therapy. Family Process, 40, 459–467.
Shotter, J. (2006). Understanding process from within: An argument for ‘withness’-thinking. Organization Studies, 27(4), 585–604. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840606062105.
Walsh, F. (2009). Spiritual resources in family therapy. New York: Guilford Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 American Family Therapy Academy
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Arora, K., Bava, S. (2018). An Unknown, Unnamable Journey: Family Therapists in Complex Conversations as Muslim and Sikh Immigrants. In: Trimble, D. (eds) Engaging with Spirituality in Family Therapy. AFTA SpringerBriefs in Family Therapy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77410-7_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77410-7_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-77409-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-77410-7
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and PsychologyBehavioral Science and Psychology (R0)