Psychotherapy for Immigrants and Refugees Term Paper

Psychotherapy for Immigrants and Refugees - Term Paper Example Social workers and psychotherapists have a duty to respond to the needs of each of these immigrants and refugees in order to lessen their burden. Social training skills and psychotherapy support go a long way in ensuring that this group of people have an easy transition from the lives that they are used to their adopted lives (Pumariega, Rothe and Pumariega, 2005). One of the major challenges that face psychotherapy for the immigrants and psychotherapists is communication problems. In the US, many of the refugees who come to the country hardly ever know English, making communication a daunting task (Balgopal, 2000). This lack of clear communication between the psychotherapists and the immigrants makes it hard for the professional counselors to help the immigrants cope with their new life. Without proper communication channels, it becomes hard to understand the needs, fears and expectations of the immigrants. However in some instances, there are some immigrants who and understand mult iple languages, including the language spoken in the host country. This makes it possible for the psychotherapists to have them as translators. Although this is better than not communicating at all, it has its limitations. The translator may not put the message across as it is supposed to be, hence meaning might be lost between the psychotherapist and the immigrant that he is supposed to be helping (Fong, 2004). Another challenge that immigrants, refugees and psychotherapists normally face is the problem of cultural differences. Concepts of psychotherapy for immigrants and refugees emphasizes on the importance of understanding the various cultures involved (Ryan, 1992). However, doing so is not very easy as most people are inclined to think in terms of their own cultures and in total disregard of the other person’s culture. In many cases psychotherapists do not have any idea of how to deal with all the different cultures that they face in their line of work. The immigrants th emselves are also mostly adamant to let go of their worldview in support of another new one. The ensuing conflict that results form cultural misunderstandings may impact negatively on the work of social psychotherapists (Corey, 2009). The psychotherapy process for the immigrant might seem like a very long and time consuming activity, and this impacts negatively on what the psychotherapists are trying to achieve. Many immigrants and refugees normally flee from their own countries of origin to new ones in search of a better life (Chang-Muy and Congress, 2009). If anything comes between them and the attainment of their new status, they are bound to consider it a waste of time. Acculturation and integration are hardly some the things that come top on the immigrants’ priority lists. Getting them to understand the importance of psychotherapy to help them fit in may be difficult and some of them might even resist any attempt to help them adopt smoothly into their new lives (Pumarieg a, Rothe and Pumariega, 2005). Psychotherapists need to be given enough training before dealing with immigrants and refugees. They should be trained on cross-cultural communication and acceptance as it plays a big role in how successful any psychotherapy process is. There is need for the development of psychotherapy and counseling techniques that should focus on skills that are influential to the integration, assimilation and acculturation of immigrants and refugees (Pumariega, Rothe and Pumariega, 2005). Training programs for counselors should include skill development for the incorporation of the family and/or the