Characteristics of Counselling Psychology and Counselling Psychologists in India: A Larger Scale Replication of a Nationwide Survey

The association between Western components of psychotherapy and psychotherapy help-seeking attitudes among Asian Indians: A practice innovation.

“…Despite heavy British influence and the robust globalization of Western cultural products, India maintains a rich and expansive Eastern culture and robust use of Indian cultural healers (Arulmani, 2007). Psychotherapists in India rely on theoretical orientations developed within Western countries (Bedi et al, 2020, 2021) and some psychologists in India have long criticized the application of psychotherapy in India outside heavily Westernized urban centers (e.g., Manickam, 2010; Varma, 1982). For example, the way many individuals in India understand healing and illness is shaped considerably by religious and local spiritual beliefs (e.g., yoga, Vedic traditions), more so than by Western theoretical understandings consonant with psychotherapy (e.g., cognitive distortions, low reinforcement; Bhargava et al, 2017).…”