Affective lexicons and indigenous responses: therapeutic interventions in social work practice with Chinese immigrant elders

摘要

This article discusses social work practice with a group of Chinese-speaking immigrant elders in New York City who favour the use of traditional affective lexicons that communicate distress in oblique, metaphorical and somatic forms. It examines the therapeutic values of the social workers' indigenous responses, as shaped by their intuitive understanding of the latent emotional content of communication within the cultural context. The discussion affirms the importance of the emotional connection between worker and client, invariably shaped by language, cultural norms, and individual proclivity, as the universal substrate of cross-cultural social work practice. :