Counseling Asian Indian Immigrant Families

Book excerpt: This book provides insight into the unique challenges facing Indian and South Asian immigrants in the West—particularly in the United States. It explores the “baggage” they carry; their expectations versus the realities of negotiating a new cultural, social, religious, and economic milieu; nostalgia and idealization of the past; and the hybridity of existence. Within this context, the author discusses factors which often contribute to intergenerational family conflict among this population. Jacob asserts that this conflict is largely a product of differences in cultural values and identity, acculturation stress, and the experience of marginality. After analyzing and interpreting empirical data collected from two hundred families, he proposes the “Praxis-Reflection-Action” (PRA) Model: a five-stage therapeutic model and the first pastoral psychotherapeutic model developed for the Asian Indians living in the West.