A hermeneutic framework for Filipino psychotherapy: A (Filipino) psychotherapist's guide to interpretation of Filipino narratives

• Main Author: Deleña, Mary Irene Clare O.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2021
• Subjects: Psychotherapy; Hermeneutics; Psychotherapists; Psychoanalytic interpretation; Filipinos
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etdd_philo/2
• Institution: De La Salle University

The psychotherapist forms interpretations of the client’s narrative in a psychotherapeutic session. These interpretations are shaped by the psychotherapist’s cultural values and anchored to one’s schema of the self, of the world, and of the Other. Studies being done in non-Western countries argue that what is deemed universal, mainstream [Western] psychotherapy, should be challenged by acknowledging that the practice is culture-laden. With Gadamer's hermeneutics as model in understanding the process of interpretation that a psychotherapist goes through, this study will utilize a critical descriptive-reflective methodology in appropriating philosophical theories towards the development of a Filipino psychotherapeutic framework. Shared situatedness is identified to be a catalyst for effective psychotherapy. This entails that a shared sociocultural milieu may offer a solution to the problem of interpretation as there already is an innate understanding of the kapwa Filipino. The philosophical investigation is focused on the operationalization of what makes culture an essential aspect for better understanding in the context of psychotherapy. As a result, this paper offers a description of a localized psychotherapy in the Philippines where the shared cultural backgrounds of the Filipino psychotherapist and the Filipino client takes central role in the understanding and interpretation of narratives.