Reconciling Western Treatment and Traditional Healing: A Social Worker Walks with the Wind

Authors

  • Alean Al-Krenawi Lecturer, Department of Social Work, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel

Abstract

This article relates the experience of the first Bedouin-Arab clinical social worker in Israel in dealing with a largely Bedouin-Arab clientele in the Negev. In the psychiatric and primary health care settings where he worked, efforts to apply Western techniques with which the patients were unfamiliar created barriers to understanding and treating their mental health problems. After much frustration, the author decided to learn about the Bedouin-Arabs' own ways of dealing with mental health problems. The paper recommends that modern practitioners who work withtraditional ethnic groups be more culturally sensitive and accept their clients' utilization of traditional healing. Showing the overlap between traditional and modern healing, it urges that modern professionals incorporate knowledge of traditional diagnoses and healing approaches into their practice.Copyright of Reflections: Narratives of Professional Helping is theproperty of Cleveland State University and its content may not be copied oremailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyrightholder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, oremail articles for individual use.

Author Biography

Alean Al-Krenawi, Lecturer, Department of Social Work, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel

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How to Cite

Al-Krenawi, A. (2014). Reconciling Western Treatment and Traditional Healing: A Social Worker Walks with the Wind. Reflections: Narratives of Professional Helping, 4(3), 6–21. Retrieved from https://reflectionsnarrativesofprofessionalhelping.org/index.php/Reflections/article/view/562

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