ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an original contribution to the construction of a theory that is culturally sensitive and able to be applied when working as a therapist with non-Europeans and other cultural groups who may be considered to fall under the political economic category of ethnic minorities. These would include people from West African cultural origin. The chapter examines the place of Western models of psychotherapy as a treatment option for people of non-European ethnic minority groups. Although in the West African perspective it is also a matter of the interplay between the visible and the invisible forces; both the visible and the invisible are externalised. All West African and others throughout the African continent have their own traditional systems of treating illnesses based on those social-cultural belief systems governing their philosophy of the causalities and treatments of the different illnesses. The traditional aboriginal African healers’ methods of diagnosing illnesses are based on some culturally meaningful theories about illness.
