Tips for Adjusting to a New Culture: Interview with Psychotherapist Leide Porcu, PhD

It can be emotionally difficult to live in a new culture. To help understand some challenges someone may face when adjusting to a new culture and for tips on adjusting to a new culture, I have interviewed psychotherapist Leide Porcu, PhD.

Tell me a little bit about yourself.
"I am a psychotherapist and a licensed psychoanalyst in private practice in New York City . I have a PhD in Anthropology from Columbia University and trained in Psychoanalysis at the Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research and in Cognitive Behavior Therapy at the Beck Institute. Part of my private practice involves work with the international community. For several years I worked for Mental Health Providers of Western Queens, one of the largest mental health clinics catering to immigrants in New York , where I was a therapist and also presented intercultural communication workshops for therapists and teachers."

What are some challenges someone may have when it comes to adjust to a new
culture?
"When you leave your country of origin and culture, you leave not only the people, but also the places, animals, foods and habits that are part of your life. You take for granted the world around you, but when you relocate, you may experience a tremendous loss that can leave you anxious, disoriented, and feeling childlike, incompetent, and dependent. The sudden inability to affect the world as you used to may be experienced as a blow to your self esteem, sense of independence, and sense of safety. You can no longer trust that the environment will respond in the way you experienced as 'natural.' It is a blow to your sense of competency, and much energy is spent unlearning and learning new sets of causes and effects. There may be a sense of loss and mourning for the old way, even if excitement for the new arises.

When we talk about culture, we need to be aware that the new culture, as well as the culture of origin, is not a monolithic whole, but a combination of heterogeneous cultures, habits, and characteristics that differ depending on class, age, gender, and ethnicity. It may be easier for people to 'essentialize' and stereotype, and this may be helpful and unavoidable at the beginning to help get a grasp of the 'other.' However, this may be dangerously simplifying, fostering a tendency to split and project all the bad into the other while attributing the positive to oneself. Everybody has heard or believed at times an ugly personal or community truth; where a group is put down to salvage another's self image. The more you are unsuccessful in adapting and creating value in your current life, the more nostalgia and idealization of the culture of origin arises. The more you feel marginalized, unrecognized, undervalued, the more you feel resentment toward other groups, not only the ones that are socioeconomically on the top, but also toward other marginal groups. For instance, it is paradoxical that instead of joining forces with neighboring immigrants to improve their condition, some of my immigrant clients marginalize and perpetrate stereotypes about one another.

The reasons for immigration, the type of life you had in the country of origin, and the condition of living that you expect and have in the host country greatly affect adaptation. Imagine a refugee escaping a traumatic past, or a poor Latino immigrant who has undergone the trauma of crossing illegally. His or her experience will be dramatically different from the immigrant who comes to offer skilled labor and is welcomed for his positively valued cultural heritage. For some illegal immigrants there is no going back, and ties with the community of origin are severed, often including separation from their own children. For many of these immigrants, poor work conditions frustrate their efforts to find value and meaning in their lives. For other groups, the relationship with the community of origin is strong though it may still be problematic and a supportive community may be available in the host country. However, too much immersion in the ethnic community in the host country may foster segregation and may compromise one's ability to interact and learn from other communities. For instance, some of my younger immigrant patients pass up opportunities to compete and succeed, preferring instead to remain local and hang out with their friends, favoring community ties, and continuing to speak the immigrant language. But here, I am aware that my culturally constructed bias creeps in, in that in many cases I value individualism above collectivism and personal success above family and community obligations, values that I may not share with a patient or their family."

What are some tips for adjusting to a new culture?
"There is a socioeconomic part of the equation that immigrants cannot really control, specifically that their culture may not be valued as much and equivalency of credentials may not be recognized. As a result, they may be forced to work below their potential'"some New York taxi drivers are engineers! Immigrants may be working in an environment that perceives them in a stereotypical way, without potential for development and growth. For a lot of people, it is difficult to take these blows in stride. It takes an extra effort to flourish when one's socio economic position is low, but for some people hardship is extra fuel for effort.

The personality of the immigrant also affects their experience. Someone who is rigid or feels entitled, or someone who feels worthless, may have a harder time than someone who is flexible and has a good basic sense of himself and others. But, of course, it is hard to feel positively about oneself in the world if one has experienced years of economic and emotional deprivation. A bad immigration experience may confirm one's original negative beliefs, and may foster a self fulfilling prophecy.

When facing immigration, it helps to be prepared and to expect that there may be a culture shock, but also to have faith that there will be light at the end of the tunnel. Of course, I am a big therapy supporter, so I would recommend therapy to process feelings and experiences, but would also recommend self help books that may enhance intercultural competency. It may seem contradictory after what I said about stereotyping and essentializing, but taken with a grain of salt, books that prepare us about the different ways different people conceive the world can be of great help, and may help diffuse some of the frustration that arises when communicating with others. For example, people differ greatly in how they show respect, and speakers may unintentionally convey the opposite of what they intended; for this reason it is important to enquire and make sure you are on the same page. Cultures vary in the amount and meaning of body language they employ; in the way they value individualism and collectivism; independence and interdependence; equality and hierarchy. Cultures also accord different meanings to being on time, to the way they express feelings, to accepted social space; to the need for peacefulness and agreement; to the way thought and discourse are organized, to the ways they conceive education, gender, age, and to how they understand the relationship between humans and nature.

I remember when I came to the US as a student sixteen years ago, how frustrated and dismissed I felt when people in the University corridors would greet me: "Hi, how are you doing?" and then rush away tending to their own business. I was left open mouthed trying to articulate my answer. It took me a while to understand that unlike Italy, where acquaintances stop and chat about all sorts of nonsense just to connect, here those words were simply meant as salutation.

When working with immigrants coming to low fee clinics who have experienced a great deal of trauma and live difficult and complex lives it is sometimes hard for therapists to provide adequate resources, as psychological, social, and material conditions all need to be addressed. When things are not so extreme, my tip would be to focus on problem solving and social skills training, to avoid isolation and to reach out. It may be easier at the beginning to contact people and organizations from your culture of origin and to join groups that may appreciate your heritage. For instance, I often recommend that my patients join online meeting groups, where they can find friends and also organize language exchanges to improve their English. I would also encourage them, if they have the time and inclination, to volunteer in their community as a way to build bridges and a new sense of home and purpose; to focus on the positive aspects, so that they can live through the very real challenges, and to act as if they were social scientists exploring a new culture while making small steps outside of their comfort zone. Above all, I recommend learning English so that they can have a voice."

What type of professional help is available for someone that is having a difficult time adjusting to a new culture?
"The choice of a therapist depends on the personality of the patient. There are different orientations in therapy and one size does not fit all. Since the therapeutic relationship , rather than the orientation, is among the most important elements determining the success of therapy, I would recommend the prospective patient go for an initial consultation to see how it 'feels' to be with that particular therapist to see if there is an initial good fit. When possible, I would recommend the involvement of the whole family in the therapy process. There is a good argument for finding a therapist who speaks the same language and is familiar with the culture of the patient, as sometimes emotions are encapsulated in a specific language and can be better accessed in that language. It is possible for a person to function in different ways depending on the language she or he is speaking, and part of the work would be the integration of these disparate parts of the self. However, when both therapist and patient belong to the same culture, there may also be blind spots as the therapist may be inclined to see the experience of the patient as similar to his own. In the end, I do not think that the ethnic and linguistic match is a real necessity. What is more important is that the therapist's orientation be toward understanding, humility, and a desire to learn from the patient what it feels to be in his or her skin. Also, the therapist needs to be self aware about his cultural bias when making an intervention, because no one is outside some form of ideology. When we help someone acculturate, we are also employing traits we value as therapist immersed in a specific culture.

I do appreciate two different types of therapy, the psychodynamic/psychoanalytic orientation and the cognitive behavioral one. These are often pitted against one another, but perhaps because of my accommodating intercultural background, I see them as complementary and both useful, depending on what the patient wants and needs. A discussion of this topic would require more space, but in a few words, the former is more of an exploration of the past as it expresses itself in the present, with a therapist that is more or less active in validating, and also interpreting parts of the patient's experience as it comes closer to the threshold of awareness. The therapist also uses himself and the therapeutic space as an instrument where feelings from the patient's internalized relationships are projected, relived, and worked through in the therapeutic relationship. The cognitive behavioral approach is more active, with a therapist involved in Socratic questioning who is apt to challenge and reframe patients' distortions and negative thinking and assist them in formulating a more helpful and realistic view of themselves and the world.

Although I think that the experience of immigration is a challenging one, I also believe it can help people grow and develop beyond what they may have been if they had not relocated. Perhaps links and experiences are lost in the process and the new hybrid identity can generate at times a harrowing experience of being neither here nor there; but what is lost can be re-elaborated symbolically, both in art and in the art of living. When you do not forget your origins while living fully in the present, you have at your disposal two or more sets of tools, knowledge, and languages; this makes you more flexible, understanding, and able to work in disparate situations efficiently. If you are able to weather the immigration process, you will be able to face changes and challenges head on."

Thank you Leide for doing the interview on tips for adjusting to a new culture. For more information on Leide Porcu or her work you can check out her website on www.leideporcu.com.