Affirmative psychotherapy for American Jews.

As psychotherapists have increasingly attended to issues of culture, race, and ethnicity in their clinical work, some groups have not received adequate attention in the professional literature. One such group is American Jews, who represent a small, culturally distinct group of people who have experienced a long history of oppression. Because of the substantial within-group variability, stereotypes are often used in the place of knowledge about or actual experience working with American Jews. To reduce reliance on stereotypes and assumptions about Jews, it is important to understand both Jews and Jewish culture, as well as how to provide culturally congruent and affirmative psychotherapy services to this community. To provide some guidance in working with American Jewish clients, this article presents (a) basic demographic information about American Jews, (b) information about Judaism and Jewish culture, and (c) aspects of culturally appropriate psychotherapy with American Jews. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved).