Engaging in psychotherapy with the Orthodox Jew: a critical review

Abstract

A critical overview of the current knowledge of engaging in psychotherapy with a cultural minority, Orthodox Jews, is provided. The various forms of psychotherapy that have been utilized to engage Orthodox Jews in meaningful psychotherapeutic encounters are discussed. Psychodynamic, cognitive, behavioral, couple, family, and group therapies have all been employed with success. The first key in working with cultural minorities, including Orthodox Jews, is patience. Patience is required to allow a therapeutic alliance to develop in which the therapist, the outsider, can be trusted. When patients are reluctant to accept the treatment proposed, patience is necessary to give them the time required to verify the treatment with someone they trust, often their rabbi in the case of the Orthodox Jew. Patience is also valuable when patients request a change in the frame of therapy, such as the use of a chaperon or leaving the door slightly ajar if being treated by a member of the opposite sex. The second key in working with this or any other cultural minority is flexibility. Flexibility is required, to chose treatment modalities that best fit with the patient's beliefs, to respect the patient's beliefs no matter the extent they deviate from the therapist's own, and finally, to be critical of oneself when examining transference and countertransference reactions.