A Culturally Sensitive Approach to Therapy with Immigrant Families: The Case of Jewish Emigrants from the Former Soviet Union

Abstract

This article is based on accumulated clinical experience in Israel with families that emigrated from the former Soviet Union. It describes a culturally sensitive systemic intervention with two such families: a single-parent family, and a family that exhibited physical violence. Relevant cultural characteristics of family patterns and parent-child relationships in Jewish-Soviet families are reviewed. It is demonstrated how a cross-cultural perspective may affect the interpretation of presented problems and result in a less pathological perspective. It is further illustrated how universal intervention techniques combined with culturally sensitive approaches may produce positive effects in therapy.

Female Immigrant Victims of Domestic Violence: A Comparison between Immigrants from the Former Soviet Union in Israel and Israeli-Born Women

“…In the present study, in 57 % of the couples that had intimate relationships before immigration, violence began only after their arrival to Israel. This finding confirms the theoretical assumption that the stress of immigration increases family conflicts that may lead to violence (Lown and Vega 2001;Slonim-Nevo et al 1999). Moreover, the context of immigration may be related to some specific forms of domestic violence.…”

“…The second distinctive feature of the immigration from the FSU to Israel is its mass character, which ensures that most immigrants have families and friends in Israel that can provide them with social support (Slonim-Nevo et al 1999). However, about one third of the immigrants from the FSU left their firstdegree relatives in their country of origin (Remennick 2004).…”

“…However, the theory also assumes that immigration may exacerbate domestic violence, because immigrants often experience a decrease in their socio-economic status and financial instability in the host country as compared with their situation in the country of origin (Raj and Silverman 2002). In addition, the task of socio-cultural adaptation to the host country may require changes in the relationship patterns in the family, which may also cause distress and conflict (Kasturirangan et al 2004;Slonim-Nevo et al 1999).…”

“This Is My Responsibility”: Parental Experience of Former Soviet Union Immigrant Parents in Israel

“…However, there are researchers who claim that the effectiveness of a parenting style depends on the cultural context in which the family lives, and in some cultures children may enjoy optimal developmental outcomes due to other, non-authoritative parenting styles (Dwairy, 2004;Garcia & Garcia, 2009). The participants' tendency to form a parenting style that ranges between authoritative and authoritarian is compatible with their cultural background, and their perception that normative parenting in the FSU entails full parental authority (Slonim-Nevo et al, 1999;Walsh et al, 2006). Yet the encounter between this parenting style and the child-rearing practices prevalent in Israel confronts the participants with complex challenges and the need to revise their way of thinking about parenting.…”

Desviación social entre adolescentes inmigrantes procedentes de la antigua Unión Soviética en Israel: Datos y factores de riesgo.

“…In contrast to Western middle-class values of independence, individualism, and assertiveness, Eastern Europeans value interdependence, collectivism, and cohesion (Robila, 2004). Therefore, childrearing practices of FSU immigrants are more restrictive and controlling, condone corporal and psychological punishment and do not foster individuation and autonomy (Slonim-Nevo et al, 1999;Shor, 1999;Mirsky, 2001,). While in the past decade, societal transformations altered childrearing practices in Russia, FSU immigrants in Israel are slower to revise their practices and adopt local norms.…”