Introduction

Abstract

After finishing my studies in psychology in 1978, I opened the first psychological services center to be situated among the Arab-Palestinian population in Israel. It was located in Nazareth, and I worked with Muslim and Christian clients. It did not take me long to realize that the tools, techniques, and theories I had learned at university were not effective. The reasons for this were many: talk therapy disappointed most of the clients, who wanted something concrete, such as medication; addressing personal or intimate issues was embarrassing and was resisted; clients were not able to express or talk about their feelings; many issues that were discussed were determined by the clients’ unconditional acceptance of norms and customs, which also limited these discussions; clients always projected the responsibility for what was happening onto others without taking personal responsibility; and many terms related to the self, such as self-fulfillment, self-awareness, or self-responsibility, were foreign to them.