TITLE:
Cultivating the Sense-of-the-Other/Sense of Community: An Autoethnographic Case Study of Psychotherapy with High-Risk, Urban Adolescents
AUTHORS:
Gen Nakao
KEYWORDS:
Sense of Community, Community Building, Autoethnography, Community-Based Participatory Research, Interpersonal Psychotherapy, Group Counseling, Urban Education, Counselor Education, New York City
JOURNAL NAME:
Current Urban Studies,
Vol.9 No.2,
May
28,
2021
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.