Religion, culture and psychotherapy in Muslim migrants

Patients from collective cultures with a tradition-bound Islamic cultural background (e.g. people from the Middle East and some Far East countries, such as Pakistan and Indonesia) have different values, norms and perceptions of spirituality and religion. These concepts of spirituality and religion have a different perception of disease and different conceptions of healing, which up to now have not been sufficiently appreciated in modern multimodal therapeutic approaches and health management. The notions of magic, healing ceremonies and religious rituals can be used as intercultural resources by taking scientific psychotherapeutic standards into consideration. Taking patients' value systems also into consideration in a culturally sensitive way, they can promote the medical psychotherapeutic work and lead to establishing partnership-like relationships between patient and therapist.