A multicultural therapy perspective involves incorporating and acknowledging cultural factors so that the therapist is able to provide efficient treatment for diverse clients (Kaya, 2017). A multicultural therapist would conceptualize Meena’s case by focusing on how her cultural upbringing is currently impacting her mental health. For example, because Meena is a Muslim Indian American immigrant, a therapist following the multicultural perspective may believe that her dedication to her religion and culture impacted her negative feelings about her sexaulity. Similarly, a feminist therapy perspective involves incorporating and acknowledging how someone’s gender may impact their mental health in order to provide effective treatment (Kaya, 2017).
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In this case, intersectional feminism refers to knowing that Meena’s identity as a Muslim Indian American immigrant and a woman both impact her mental health. There are several ways a multicultural/feminist therapist would work with Meena. One example of a technique multicultural/feminists therapists use to to allow the client to lead the therapy session. In Meena’s case, the therapist would let her voice her opinions about her race, gender, and if she believes these factors impact her mental health rather than forcing their own opinions on Meena. Another technique a multicultural/feminist therapist may use is gender role analysis. Gender role analysis refers to analyzing how gendered expectations have an impact on mental health problems (Kaya, 2017). In Meena’s case, a therapist would integrate gender role analysis by talking about the possibilities that because she is a woman, she feels that she must be with a man even if she has not felt any emotional/sexual connection to them outside of sharing the same …show more content…
Furthermore, incongruence is defined as the differences between one’s ideal self and one’s real self (Iwamoto, 2017). In Meena’s case, if we integrate her cultural and gender values with values associated with the humanistic approach, we can argue that Meena’s OVP is suffering due to her incongruence. Meena is an Indian American Muslim woman. Both her culture and religion frown upon same sex relationships. Furthermore, because Meena is a woman, society automatically assumes and sometimes demands that all women be attracted to men. Finally, although she identifies as as bisexual woman and is currently married to a man, she admits feeling more emotional and sexual intimacy with women. Therefore, due to her cultural experiences, religious experiences, and gender specific experiences, Meena downplays her attraction to women causing her to feel incongruence. Her ideal self is someone that is attracted to solely men, but her real self is someone that not only is attracted to women, but prefers them more than men as romantic partners. According to a humanistic approach because of this incongruence, her OVP is damaged and she is having a harder time reaching self-actualization, which causes her to feel
In this case, intersectional feminism refers to knowing that Meena’s identity as a Muslim Indian American immigrant and a woman both impact her mental health. There are several ways a multicultural/feminist therapist would work with Meena. One example of a technique multicultural/feminists therapists use to to allow the client to lead the therapy session. In Meena’s case, the therapist would let her voice her opinions about her race, gender, and if she believes these factors impact her mental health rather than forcing their own opinions on Meena. Another technique a multicultural/feminist therapist may use is gender role analysis. Gender role analysis refers to analyzing how gendered expectations have an impact on mental health problems (Kaya, 2017). In Meena’s case, a therapist would integrate gender role analysis by talking about the possibilities that because she is a woman, she feels that she must be with a man even if she has not felt any emotional/sexual connection to them outside of sharing the same …show more content…
Furthermore, incongruence is defined as the differences between one’s ideal self and one’s real self (Iwamoto, 2017). In Meena’s case, if we integrate her cultural and gender values with values associated with the humanistic approach, we can argue that Meena’s OVP is suffering due to her incongruence. Meena is an Indian American Muslim woman. Both her culture and religion frown upon same sex relationships. Furthermore, because Meena is a woman, society automatically assumes and sometimes demands that all women be attracted to men. Finally, although she identifies as as bisexual woman and is currently married to a man, she admits feeling more emotional and sexual intimacy with women. Therefore, due to her cultural experiences, religious experiences, and gender specific experiences, Meena downplays her attraction to women causing her to feel incongruence. Her ideal self is someone that is attracted to solely men, but her real self is someone that not only is attracted to women, but prefers them more than men as romantic partners. According to a humanistic approach because of this incongruence, her OVP is damaged and she is having a harder time reaching self-actualization, which causes her to feel