Michel Botbol, Secretary for Scientific Publications of the WPA, and César Alfonso, Chair of the WPA Psychotherapy Section, will be Guest Editors of a Special Issue of the journal Asia-Pacific Psychiatry themed “Transcultural Psychotherapy”. The journal’s Editor-in-Chief, Allan Tasman, is committed to publish this Special Issue. Selected articles for this Special Issue on “Transcultural Psychotherapy” will demonstrate the importance of cultural adaptations in psychotherapy across all clinical settings in the Asia-Pacific region (and other regions of the world).
Cultural adaptation of psychotherapies strives for compatibility and alignment with values and belief systems, cultural idioms of distress, health-seeking behaviours, and
culture-specific understanding of disease processes and illness experiences. A framework for adaptation seeks to achieve better clinical outcomes and may include adjustments in therapy techniques that incorporate family to better engage individual patients, providing a culturally consonant rationale for therapy, sensitivity to religious beliefs, and fluency with nuances of language and non-verbal communication.
We encourage manuscript submissions of research studies, clinical reviews and education
programs addressing the larger theme of transcultural psychotherapy from various perspectives, including psychodynamic and psychoanalytic, supportive, IPT, CBT, DBT, MI, third wave therapies and other evidence-based psychotherapies. We encourage submissions to be targeted (a specific evidence-based psychotherapy modality), and research based, although we will also consider publishing illustrative case reports and case series if accompanied by a scholarly review of the corresponding literature. If case material is incorporated it should not include identifying information and patients must provide informed consent for publication.
Authors: Michel Botbol, WPA Secretary for Scientific Publications and César Alfonso, Chair of the WPA Psychotherapy Section