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This article describes a novel approach to working with Chinese American families. The author proposes that brief strategic family therapy possesses certain aspects that have special applicability to working with Chinese American families. A brief description of some of the major Chinese American cultural characteristics is presented. Eight aspects of brief strategic family therapy are proposed as consistent with Chinese American families. The concepts of working within a Chinese American family's frame of reference, reframing, and second-order change are especially effective principles in this work. A case example is presented to demonstrate how these concepts can be implemented with a Chinese American family.
Brief strategic therapy as practiced at the Mental Research Institute (MRI; Weakland, Fisch, & Bodin, 1971) has been acknowledged as one of the major innovations in the field of family therapy. The principles that have come out of the MRI have influenced many theorists and practitioners. However, despite wide applications of this approach in many different settings and with many different populations, very little has been written concerning its application to different ethnic groups. This is unfortunate, because the concepts of the strategic approach are particularly appropriate for working with the culturally different. This article proposes that certain aspects of the strategic approach have special applicability to working with Chinese American families.
CHINESE AMERICAN FAMILIES
The Chinese have been residing in the United States in significant numbers for more than 140 years. In 1990 approximately 1,650,000 lived in the United States (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1991). This is more than double the number 10 years prior, and it is estimated that this number will more than triple by the year 2000. Although they compose less than half of 1% of the total U.S. population, the Chinese are the largest of the various Asian groups in the United States. Despite stereotypes that Chinese Americans are generally well adjusted, and despite lower usage of mental health services by Chinese Americans, S. Sue and Morishima (1982) found that the needs for psychiatric services and education are substantial for Chinese American families. However, the existing literature on treating Chinese American families is very sparse. Hong (1989) proposed that therapists, when working with Chinese American families, must take acculturation into account. For instance, first-generation Chinese...