Cross‐Cultural Family Therapy — A Malaysian Experience

This case report illustrates the possibilities and difficulties of family therapy in a non‐Western culture. Malaysia is a truly multiracial society with diverse ethnic groups having different religions, languages, and cutural patterns of relationships. In addition, the nation as a whole, and each ethnic group in particular, is in the process of cultural change, which produces stress on the traditional family's style of relationships. The therapists working in this culture are often crossing religious, linguistic, and socioeconomic barriers, as well as encountering the cultural pressures placed upon families. We will formulate some general problems in cross‐cultural psychotherapy, discuss some aspects of this specific culture and family with a case report, and offer some suggestions for handling problems in family therapy under these circumstances.