Cultural Perspective of Healing Trauma

Abstract

As suggested throughout various chapters of this book (see Chapters 4, 5 and 13), culture sensitivity is becoming a significant variable in treatment and rehabilitation of traumatized children. Early work in this area, however, has been influenced by research on race, culture, migration and mental health (Murphy 1973, 1977; Ward et al. 2001; Fernando 2002). Indeed, some previous research work has faced design problems and has relied heavily on convenience cases and clinical samples (Brislin and Baumgardner 1971). However, the last four decades have witnessed a major shift from the medical model (Summerfield 1995; Timimi 2002; d’Ardenne and Mahtani 1989; Kareem and Littlewood 1992) towards the importance of culture influences on human behaviour. One aspect of this new orientation was the establishment of research and the foundation of the new disciplines such as cross-cultural psychology (Triandis 1980, 1994; Triandis et al. 1988; Lonner and Malpass 1994; Brislin 1993; Matsumoto and Juang 2004; Matsumoto 1994); trans-cultural psychiatry (Leff 1988; Bhugra 1993; Bhugra and Bhui 2001; Dwivedi 1996; de Silva 1999) and multicultural counselling (Pedersen 1985, 1991; Abramowitz and Murray 1983; Pomterotto and Casas 1991; Palmer and Laungani 1999). This emphasis has recently been extended to cultural awareness in nursing and health care (Holland and Hogg 2001).