Family Counseling and Therapy With Diverse Ethnocultural Groups

In search of a global family psychology: Challenges and perspectives.

“…The roots of what today we consider family psychology were linked to the rise of systemic epistemology and the family therapy movement (Nutt & Stanton, 2011). Similarly important are the social, historical, cultural, technological, cultural, and political contexts that impacted families during the same time period (Bernal & Gómez-Arroyo, 2017;Bernal, Morales-Cruz, & Gómez-Arroyo, 2016). These changes are closely related to notions of the family as a social organization that may be restructured across cultures and over time (Hill, 2012).…”

“…A new understanding of the family was formed as cybernetic systems emerged during the 1940s and 1950s, challenging many traditional assumptions of psychological paradigms that are focused on the individual (Anderson, 2017;Bray & Stanton, 2009) and leading to an evolving perception of the family (Bernal & Gómez-Arroyo, 2017). Additionally, during the 1960s and 1970s, the social movements of civil and women' s rights; the sexual revolution; the increase in divorce; and the new configurations of single-parent, stepfamilies, immigrant families, and cross-cultural families transformed traditional mental health services (Bernal & Gómez-Arroyo, 2017;Bernal, Morales-Cruz, & Gómez-Arroyo, 2016). In other words, systemic philosophical principles challenged traditional models of mental health, skewing causal/linear thinking to explain psychological disorders within the individual that began to be viewed within a broader context that included the family and the community.…”

“…Globalization also has a political and economic impact, related to how the advance of capitalism allowed connections among countries around the world (Carolissen, 2012). The expansion of capitalism generated a global process of modernization and the constant creation of new technologies that had a direct influence on changes in family systems over time (Bernal et al, 2016;Hill, 2012). Due to the rapid increase of new technologies and the resulting capability to communicate almost instantaneously throughout most of the world, McLuhan's theories continue to have relevance.…”