Cultural Box: Exploring Culture in a Group Context

Cultural Box: Exploring Culture in a Group Context is the only conference workshops this year with a multi/inter-cultural focus. Its facilitators – Alexandra (Sasha) Juravleva, LMHC and Toshie Suzuki, LICSW – contemplate the symbolism of the box and how it applies to the subject of culture and group therapy.

Boxes are versatile. We use boxes for varied purposes in everyday life. A jewelry box, for example, keeps and protects what we value. It hides our treasure from unscrupulous eyes. A mail box collects with the purpose of distributing further. A litter box holds waste to keep the rest clean. A box of chocolates provides guilty pleasure. A music box amuses and entertains. An old shoe box that has been transformed into a storage place for pictures now preserves tender memories. The symbolism of a box connects to its versatility and is manifold. For example, a coffin bestows a final resting place for the deceased, yet it aligns with life as much as it does with the death. It protects the remains of the loved one and at the same time – provides separation between the worlds of the dead and the living. This separation is important, not only for the deceased, but for the surviving family and friends who need to say suitable good-byes without being overcome by the fear of the death itself.

From a symbolic perspective, culture and a group can be represented as boxes. The walls of a bigger cultural box are established by cultural rules and norms. These walls can protect and at the same time oppress. They can restrict as well as liberate by defining clear boundaries. When we find ourselves put into a smaller, more clearly outlined box of a group, two contents start to interact—that of our cultures and that of the group. As a result, our boxed anxieties surface: Will “they” put a lid on me in this group? Will my bottom hold? Will I be shoved to the side and never be opened? From a clinical perspective, these anxieties can be conceptualized as cultural transference and counter-transference.

Our workshop is designed to explore these and related themes through experiential modalities and discussion. The importance of understanding cultural transference and counter-transference for clinical work has been extensively researched in literature (e.g., Abernethy, 1998). The researchers’ conclusion is that when the clinician is not aware of how his or her cultural background and that of a client impacts their work, the client’s emotional safety and the working relationship can be jeopardized; as a result, it would more likely to lead to the treatment impasse, dropout, and premature termination. Therefore, we find it important to examine our culturally-influenced responses to each other in the context of the group and we invite you to join us in that.

Alexandra (Sasha) Juravleva, LMHC, CPRP (http://www.sashatherapy.com) is the staff psychotherapist at the Northeastern University Health and Counseling Services, Boston. She is also in private practice at Harvard Sq., Cambridge. Sasha is a Co-Chair of the NSGP Conference Publicity Committee and an active member of the Japanese-Speaking Mental Health Professionals Group in Cambridge.

Toshie Suzuki, LICSW, is a clinician at Freedom Trail Clinic at North Suffolk Mental Health Associations and an active member of the Japanese-Speaking Mental Health Professional Group in the Greater Boston. Formerly, she worked at Berklee College of Music as a Personal Counselor/Multicultural Specialist and was a co-covenant for Asian Staff and Faculty Association.