Chinese indigenous psychotherapies in Singapore

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the relevance of folk therapies or traditional medicine to counselling in Singapore. It addresses the meanings of the indigenous psychotherapies and then the rationales for understanding them. Three popular Chinese indigenous psychotherapies have been selected for discussion in terms of their aetiology and treatment beliefs about emotional problems: traditional Chinese medicine, dang‐ki (Chinese shamanism), and feng‐shui (Chinese geomancy). Findings from an empirical study are briefly presented to show that Chinese Singaporean clients hold eclectic belief systems encompassing both beliefs derived from thse indigenous psychotherapies and those from Western psychotherapies (e.g. psychodynamic and behavioural therapies). Two cases are presented to illustrate the application of these indigenous psychotherapies in counselling practice.

Practise What you Preach: Counsellors’ Experience of Practising Buddhist Counselling in Thailand

“…As such, the focus of indigenous counselling is on understanding "the individual-in-culture" (Ho, 1998, p. 94). Importantly, Lee (2002) commented that whether a model of counselling is regarded as "indigenous" depends upon one's perspective. For example, from the Western perspective, it can be regarded that Western models of counselling are indigenous as they originated from the Euro-American culture.…”

“…An increasing recognition of the need for counselling to be indigenised has led to efforts to develop counselling interventions that are specifically developed from and for a specific cultural group of people in many Asian countries. For example, Lee (2002) demonstrated how he worked with his Chinese clients in Singapore by integrating three indigenous concepts and techniques, namely Chinese medicine, dang-ki (Chinese shamanism), and feng-shui (Chinese geomancy), into his therapeutic practice. Chong and Liu (2002) described the "Experience Transformed Model", a counselling model that is developed from the grounds of the Chinese philosophy of Yin-Yang and that applies the ideas from Western counselling models to the formulation of its theoretical framework.…”

Journeying Through Different Mythic Worlds

“…Since the mind and body are not separately treated, TCM does not have a specialty of psychiatry as in biomedicine. Nonetheless, psychiatric-like symptoms were documented in classical medical texts (see Lee, 2002;Scheid, 2013). Common TCM treatments are herbs, acupuncture, moxibustion, advice-giving, massage, tai-chi (太極), qigong (氣功), and meditation.…”

“…Traditional Chinese Medicine TCM is the only traditional medical practice regulated in Singapore (Singapore Ministry of Health, 2022). By viewing mind and body as mutually constituted, the TCM physicians perceive health condition as the outcome of interplay between emotions (joy, thinking, anxiety/sorrow, fear, anger, shock) and their respective organs (heart, spleen, lungs, kidneys, liver, gallbladder;Lee, 2002). These organs are metaphorical and not compatible with the anatomical structure in biomedicine.…”

“…A high value is placed on the moderation and inhibition of strong affective expression to avoid interpersonal conflicts (Chen et al, 2005). Similarly, excessive emotion, rather than emotions per se, is regarded as pathogenic in TCM (Lee, 2002).…”