Cultivating the Sense-of-the-Other/Sense of Community: An Autoethnographic Case Study of Psychotherapy with High-Risk, Urban Adolescents
- 1 Department of Management, Otemon Gakuin University, Osaka, Japan
Abstract
This paper presents an autoethnographic case study in order to discuss interpersonal psychotherapy and work conducted with high-risk adolescents in an urban school setting. The author discusses how the sense-of-the-other developed by counseling sessions possibly fosters a sense of connection for students, and the sense of belonging to a school. This paper argues that counselors often encounter students’ resistance and/or hesitance to mental health counseling because of a lack of awareness of such services within the wider community. Such cultural barriers should be taken into account in order to understand better the lived-experiences of a community. Group sessions, or the facets of the interactions at school that successfully facilitated self-expression, could function as a safe refuge for students and ultimately develop a sense of community. Such an educational context possibly constitutes a link between marginalized individuals and a school in a community.
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