Asian Indian Family Counseling Case Study

As discussed by Winston (1999), the most common types of therapy Asian Indians typically seek when families are in crisis are family/marriage counseling, counseling for children and substance abuse counseling. Counseling from a systems perspective is most likely to be accepted by Asian Indians when their traditional family hierarchal roles and religious views are taken into consideration by a professional and competent counselor.

Having knowledge of Asian Indian culture is imperative in order to succeed in the therapeutic process. Many Asian Indian elders are more interested in protecting their traditions than accepting change; “the lack of change in the attitude of Indian parents and their expectations based on the traditional Indian value system is a major source of strain among Indian families residing in the United States. In our judgment, parent-child relationships are the most pressing issue confronting the Indian community in the United States” (Watson, 1999).
Asian Indian immigrants now consist of college-educated, urban, middle-class professional young men and women of religious, regional, and linguistic diversity" (Winston, 1990). Logically based on their own attributes, Asian Indians will seek counselors who are regarded as experts and highly competent with accreditations and reliable references preferring extensive field experience with many previous clients who have been successfully treated.

According to Tavkar et al. (2008), barriers to counseling and causes for premature termination may include: the shameful stigma of counseling in Asian Indian culture; male counselors with female clients; counselors maintaining professional distance can be seen as rejection by the client; counselors who are not culturally sensitive; psychosomatic problems treated by medical doctors; and isolation of the elderly;