Developing an intervention psychotherapy programme for the needs of Iranian immigrants in the UK

This research focuses on the mental healthcare needs of Iranian couples that have emigrated to the UK. There is a striking lack of research focused on understanding the mental healthcare needs of, or evaluating the quality of mental healthcare services available to, Iranians living in the UK. Western psychotherapists need to accept the role of clients' worldviews as critical to the efficacy of psychotherapy. All approaches to psychotherapy are culturally biased; traditionally available Western psychotherapeutic approaches are informed by Western culture. The Psycho-Educational Psychotherapy Programme (hereafter named ‘PEP’) was initiated in its rudimentary form when the researcher worked for the NHS. Regular one-to-one sessions with couples are an integral part of PEP, and they were included intuitively without systematic examination or evaluation. Interviews and focus groups were held with psychotherapists working with culturally diverse clients to investigate their views and experiences of working with Iranian clients. Most interviewees were dissatisfied with the high rate of disengagement of their Iranian clients. They reported their success rate with Western clients as higher than with their Iranian clients. Clients tend to be uncomfortable with therapists who cannot approach sexual issues from a cultural perspective. Thus, factors such as religion and education have an immense impact on clients’ engagement, as well as on their expectations.