“This book challenged my thinking and engaged my compassion in the best possible way, prompting me to re-examine my frames of reference, the internal and cultural contexts or ‘ground’ that inevitably influences how I engage with my clients. The exploration and analysis provided by Keith Tudor and colleagues in each paper, grounded on the principles of person-centred and transactional analysis approaches, is persuasive, humanistic, and ultimately integrative, inviting practitioners to move towards perceived cultural otherness, to balance polarities, acknowledge in(ter)dependence, and embrace the creativeness of co-creation. This book is a valuable resource for every therapist intending to practice in a culturally sensitive and reflective way.”- Mihili Alexander, Cross-cultural Psychotherapist and Supervisor, Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand“I appreciate Tudor’s attention to the role of culture in both the training of therapists and in the understanding of self and of the clients one serves. As a transactional analyst since 1975, I have often been discouraged to see how many in our discipline do not make this aspect central to our work. Individuals influence systems and can impact culture (or at least our responses to it). Therapists and trainers have power to support themselves and their clients in seeing how part of their personal healing can involve addressing systemic and cultural barriers that may cause and/or exacerbate mental distress. The papers in this book engage with influence and impact, support, and connection.”- Valerie A. Batts, PhD, Licensed Clinical Psychologist, Founding Director/Senior Consultant VISIONS, Inc., Edenton, North Carolina, United States of America“The ideas that are presented in this book are central to an understanding not only of culture and the cultural conditions of therapy but to engage with authentic and anti-discriminatory therapeutic practice. This book is a real gift as it provides important insights, which help us to go beyond navigating the contours of cultural variables as it encourages a return to valuing our interconnectedness as culturally diverse people, living in a wider ecosystem. It is also deeply moving, and a vital, compelling, highly engaging book that will be a key text for all those interested in cross-cultural encounters, theory, and ethical practice.”- Divine Charura, Professor of Counselling Psychology, York St John University, York, United Kingdom“We are living in a time when fundamental assumptions that stabilise a community’s shared sense of reality and delineate the boundaries and norms of selfhood and relationship are colliding, rupturing, and unravelling. Once-settled collective psyches across the world are all subjected to forces of disruption at a dizzying pace forcing people to renegotiate everything, everywhere, all at once. If ever there was need for psychotherapy to respond to such cultural upheavals it is now.The power of these essays lies in Tudor’s long-standing commitment both to advancing a psychotherapy framework based in a radical person-centred philosophy and, at the same time, critically reflecting on the epistemological and praxiological abuses that stem from applying the Euro-American paradigm that has dominated the psychotherapy field as if it were universal. As the world struggles with the existential challenges of post-modernity, where old certainties are dissolving, it will need psychotherapy frameworks that do justice to multiple viewpoints without losing reverence for the lived experience of unique persons in their diverse cultures. In the new context of intractable uncertainty this collection by Tudor and his culturally diverse group of colleagues offers an inspiring and well-grounded contribution to this project.”- Maureen O'Hara, Professor of Psychology (Emerita), National University, San Diego, California, Former President, Saybrook University, San Francisco, California, United States of America
