Intercultural family counseling
Counseling specifically tailored to families with more than one cultural background.
Focused on building understanding and restoring connection within family relationships.
What is family counseling?
In family counseling, together we explore the dynamics within your family. What is your family history? How do you communicate? What parenting style do you use? And so on. In intercultural family counseling naturally there is much attention for cultural backgrounds and how this effects your family life.
Why intercultural family counseling?
Kim’s parents moved to the Netherlands just before she was born. It was difficult for her parents to adjust, and that caused a lot of stress in the family. Kim is growing up in two cultures: her Asian home culture and the Dutch culture. She feels ashamed that she is different from her friends. Her parents are finding it increasingly difficult to understand and guide her. The atmosphere in the family suffers greatly as a result, and there are frequent arguments.
Hanneke fell in love with Mamadou in Senegal. After a few years, Hanneke became homesick, and they moved to the Netherlands. Mamadou became a French teacher, and they had two children. They are having a hard time agreeing on how to raise the children, as they both have different standards. This is difficult for the children, and as parents, they argue about it more and more.
In both situations, the family is under pressure. Intercultural family counseling takes the different cultural backgrounds into account. We explore how these patterns have developed and how you can stay connected with one another ánd your children despite differences in norms and customs.
The starting point is your desire to make a change. That desire may be different for each family member so we need to find a common ground for you as a family to stand on.
In family counseling, I work with you as a family and also have individual conversations with family members—of course, tailored to the children’s ages and abilities.
Counseling is an active process. That means that, in addition to conversations, we regularly play a game or do an exercise together. And you may be given assignments to work on between sessions.
When necessary, in consultation with you, I incorporate additional therapies, such as playtherapy or psychomotoric therapy as an active and playful treatment method.
