Counseling Arab and Chaldean American Families

The last century has seen an increase in the population of Americans of Arab and Chaldean descent. In recent decades, clinicians have articulated the goal of enhancing their knowledge of cultural diversity for the purpose of improving their appreciation for diversity and the quality of their mental health interventions with diverse populations. However, there is currently little systematic empirical research regarding the counseling of Arab and Chaldean Americans, although awareness of the need for such research among mental health professionals has started to emerge. The purpose of this paper is to provide an integrative review of the values and socio-cultural forces that are relevant to the counseling of this population in North America, and to provide some culturally sensitive recommendations for working with American families of Arab and Chaldean ethnicity. In particular, we propose that effective interventions with clients of Arab and Chaldean ethnic backgrounds will need to be informed by an understanding of the everyday sociopolitical contextual background of target clients and the impact of values and acculturation processes on the family network.