With new lenses. Transcultural consultation as a tool for multicultural social work. An exploratory case study in Italy

ABSTRACT

This qualitative study explores how transcultural consultation is carried out in the social services of a local Italian area. Its purpose is to deepen our understanding of whether this methodology founded on the ethnopsychological approach can be useful in strengthening the cultural competency of social workers. Based on participant observations and semi-structured interviews, this paper illustrates how this tool helps practitioners become more aware of their values and implement more collaborative interventions, through which clients with migratory backgrounds can find a space for the expression and recognition of their internalised cultures. This paper additionally points out similarities and differences between this methodology and other cross-cultural social work models. Although transcultural consultation is conducted by psychotherapists, different application paths are proposed where even social workers can play an active role.

KEYWORDS:

• Migration
• ethnopsychiatry
• multicultural social work
• cultural competence
• cross-cultural practice
• transcultural consultation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Davide Galesi

Davide Galesi is an associate professor of Sociology at the Department of Sociology and Social Research, University of Trento, Italy. He teaches in the courses of Social Work and of International Studies. His scholarship and research areas include consumption of psychotropic drugs and pharmaceuticalisation of everyday life; mental health and migration; applications of ethnopsychology in social services.