Spiritual energy of Islamic prayers as a catalyst for psychotherapy.

Islamic prayers can produce spiritual energy that may yield many psychological benefits, such as amelioration of stress and improvement in subjective well-being, interpersonal sensitivity, and mastery. Islamic prayers can also be integrated into mainstream therapeutic interventions with religious Muslim clients, and this integration can mobilize, transform, and invigorate the process of psychotherapy. This paper provides methods that can be used for the explicit integration of Islamic prayers into traditional psychotherapy. Further, the paper offers strategies for avoiding potential pitfalls that may hamper this process. Finally, a case study illustrating this therapeutic integration and its psychological benefits will be presented.

African refugees in Egypt: trauma, loss, and cultural adjustment.

This study examined the influence of pre-immigration trauma on the acculturation process of refugees, as reflected in the manifestations of their continuing bonds with native cultures. Six African refugees who sought refuge in Egypt because of wars and political persecution were interviewed about the circumstances of their departure from their home countries, as well as their life experiences in Egypt. All participants kept continuing bonds with their native cultures, but these bonds manifested differently depending on their ability to assimilate pre-immigration trauma and cultural losses. Participants who successfully assimilated both pre-immigration trauma and cultural losses developed continuing bonds with their native cultures that helped them (a) integrate the Egyptian culture into their life experiences and (b) tolerate difficult political conditions in Egypt. Participants who could not assimilate their pre-immigration trauma and cultural losses also developed continuing bonds with their native culture, but these bonds only provided them with solace.

Immigrants' continuing bonds with their native culture: assimilation analysis of three interviews.

Three case studies of immigrants to the US from China, Iraq, and Mexico were used to build a theory of acculturation in immigrants by integrating the continuing bonds model, which describes mourning in bereavement with the assimilation model, which describes psychological change in psychotherapy. Participants were interviewed about the loss of their native culture and their life in the US. One participant had not fully assimilated the loss of her native culture, but used her continuing bonds with her culture as a source of solace. Another participant used his continuing bonds with his culture as a source of solace, but these bonds had become a source of conflict with the host culture. The third participant had largely assimilated the loss of his native culture such that the voices of this culture were linked via meaning bridges with the voices of the host culture, and the continuing bonds were resources that helped him in his land of immigration.

Construction of the perceived parental acculturation behaviors scale.

This article reports preliminary development of the Perceived Parental Acculturation Behaviors Scale (PPABS) based on a sample of 44 college students whose parents immigrated to America from Arab countries. The PPABS proposes two independent scales, whose contents characterize the respondents' perceptions of how much their parents evidence (a) openness to the American culture and (b) preservation of Arab culture.