Systemic family therapy in Africa: Past, present, and future trends

Ronald Asiimwe, Michelle Karume, Rosco Kasujja

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

Abstract

Globally, and in Africa, family and marital relationships play a critical role in shaping the mental, emotional, physical, spiritual, and behavioral well-being of individuals. Although individual approaches to psychotherapy have previously dominated the landscape of mental health practice in Africa, Western models of systemic family therapy have slowly gained increased prominence in many parts of Africa in the recent years. In this chapter, the authors discuss the historical, current, and future landscape of systemic family therapy research and practice in Africa. The authors explore sociocultural values, traditions, and practices that have historically shaped and/or, distinguished psychotherapy practice in Africa from the Euro-centric approaches. The central argument in this chapter is that although systemic family therapy approaches and practices originated mostly in Western countries, they are beneficial, and most fit well within most African cultural values and practices. Thus, the future success of family therapy in Africa primarily revolves around three major milestones: 1) establishing more family therapy training programs across the continent to produce African SFTs; 2) developing culturally responsive models of family therapy training, research, and clinical practice; and 3) improving the public perception of family therapy to the masses2.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationThe Routledge International Handbook of Couple and Family Therapy
PublisherTaylor and Francis
Pages155-187
Number of pages33
ISBN (Electronic)9781003297871
ISBN (Print)9781032286617
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 16 2023

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 selection and editorial matter, Katherine M. Hertlein. All rights reserved.

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