Familial and cultural issues in the brief strategic treatment of Israeli Bedouins

Strategic therapeutic approaches and active social work interventions can be effective in settings of non-Western culture when professionals have the requisite contextual knowledge and sensitivity. The authors, a social worker (Bedouin), a supervising psychiatrist, and a family therapist operated an outpatient clinic with a large Bedouin clientele in the city of Beer Sheba, Israel. Their clients were often referred by general practitioners for somatic complaints or behavioral disturbances for which no organic basis could be found. Four vignettes are reported in which strategic social work interventions were attempted. Appreciation of the culture and working within the power structure of the extended family helped to achieve various degrees of success in three treatments: for depression, post-traumatic symptoms, and conversion reaction. The fourth treatment, for conversion disorder and enuresis, did not succeed because of family opposition.