Abstract
Book of Abstracts ICCP 2016
This proposal deals with psychosocial intervention of couples in mixed-marriages in Denmark, which has barely been scientifically explored due to the homogeneity and colourblindness dominant discourse.
The term “mixed” is used for couples who feel that their intimate relationship is formed across two socially significant groups: ethnic, religious, region/caste, thus the present study has broad relevance. This proposal delineates the demographic details, intervention process of two ethnically mixed- marriage cases. Cases’ analyses are combined with relevant results from an empirical study (Singla, 2015) about intermarried couples to present lessons for counselling and psychotherapy good practices.
The couples in the two cases and ten in-depth interviews based empirical study are formed across ethnic/religious borders - one partner is native Danish and the other originates from South Asia (India, Pakistan). Cultural historical psychology forms the background of the theoretical framework of the study, while a combination of intersectionality (Moodley, 2011), everyday life perspective and transnationalism forms the foreground.
The lessons learnt for counselling and psychotherapy are about balancing different family and world views through exploring and including the family relationships across categorisations such as generation and geographical positions, while focusing at multiple- and dominant identities. Balancing levity and gravity - optimism and realism is the next lesson. The last lesson is about moving beyond the dichotomy of similarity and differences inspired by Murphy-Shigematsu (2002)’s argumentation that difference and sameness are not mutually exclusive and must be understood through clients’ context especially differentials of power and privilege characterising the partners, also historically.
This proposal deals with psychosocial intervention of couples in mixed-marriages in Denmark, which has barely been scientifically explored due to the homogeneity and colourblindness dominant discourse.
The term “mixed” is used for couples who feel that their intimate relationship is formed across two socially significant groups: ethnic, religious, region/caste, thus the present study has broad relevance. This proposal delineates the demographic details, intervention process of two ethnically mixed- marriage cases. Cases’ analyses are combined with relevant results from an empirical study (Singla, 2015) about intermarried couples to present lessons for counselling and psychotherapy good practices.
The couples in the two cases and ten in-depth interviews based empirical study are formed across ethnic/religious borders - one partner is native Danish and the other originates from South Asia (India, Pakistan). Cultural historical psychology forms the background of the theoretical framework of the study, while a combination of intersectionality (Moodley, 2011), everyday life perspective and transnationalism forms the foreground.
The lessons learnt for counselling and psychotherapy are about balancing different family and world views through exploring and including the family relationships across categorisations such as generation and geographical positions, while focusing at multiple- and dominant identities. Balancing levity and gravity - optimism and realism is the next lesson. The last lesson is about moving beyond the dichotomy of similarity and differences inspired by Murphy-Shigematsu (2002)’s argumentation that difference and sameness are not mutually exclusive and must be understood through clients’ context especially differentials of power and privilege characterising the partners, also historically.
| Original language | English |
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| Publication date | 1 Jan 2016 |
| Number of pages | 1 |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Jan 2016 |
| Event | 3rd International Conference of Counselling, Psychotherapy and Wellness - Christ University, Bengaluru, Bangalore, India Duration: 5 Jan 2016 → 7 Jan 2016 http://www.iccp2016.com/ (Link to Conference) |
Conference
| Conference | 3rd International Conference of Counselling, Psychotherapy and Wellness |
|---|---|
| Location | Christ University, Bengaluru |
| Country/Territory | India |
| City | Bangalore |
| Period | 05/01/2016 → 07/01/2016 |
| Internet address |
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Bibliographical note
Conversation sessionAbstracts: Paper ID 5035