The ultra-orthodox Jewish community in Israel is highly homogeneous and is virtually isolated from the surrounding secular society. Nevertheless, in recent years some openness to psychotherapy has emerged. In this paper the first author, herself a member of the ultra-orthodox community and a psychotherapist, presents a series of analyses and discussions of the major issues raised by therapy amongst members of this community. This study had two main objectives: a) a qualitative assessment of possible conflicts between the subjects strong religious convictions and the essence of psychotherapy; some conflicts were indeed detected which were followed by individual modes of reconciliation, b) an attempt to discover whether the psychotherapy had an impact on the level of observance of the Jewish commandments and customs; some indications for a lessening of such observance were found. This study, being the first of its kind, could provide a basis for studying the effects of psychotherapy on subjects belonging to isolated communities.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.