Psychotherapy With a 17-Year-Old Iranian American Female: Therapeutic Guidelines

This chapter will provide an evidence-based approach to psychotherapy with the Iranian American youth. The evidence presented here is grounded in my clinical experiences with this population and formulated based on the resiliency factors identified by Cicchetti and Rogosch (2002). The influences of cultural underpinnings are discussed in relation to the development of the "universal healing conditions" (i.e., a healing relationship, instilling hope in the healing process, rationale for healing, and rituals for healing) as identified and discussed by Fischer, Jome, and Atkinson (1998). Interpersonal psychotherapy (IP), the cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), psychodynamic therapy, pharmacotherapy, and psychoeducation compose the empirically based evidence of my integrative approach to psychotherapy with the Iranian American adolescents and their families. The integration of those empirically based therapies infused with cultural sensitivity provides the "healing rationale" for my work with this population. The guidelines I have provided here are limited to my clinical experience and evidence I have gathered in working with the Iranian American population for the past 6 years, as well as my own immigration experiences as an adolescent, my training and education as a clinical psychologist, and finally my own lived experiences as an Iranian American mother who has raised two adolescents in the United States.