Migrants or locals, who adapts to whom? Group therapeutic challenges

This paper aims to show how social heterogeneity related to migration can affect mental health care, and the challenges this poses for group psychotherapists. Aspects such as cultural difference, belonging, otherness and stigmatisation are intertwined as they harbour potential for conflict. These mutual dependencies usually exist against a backdrop of power relations and the unconscious interpersonal relationships that develop from them. In such heterogeneous therapy groups, I examine difficulties in countertransference and verbalising different attitudes and experiences in mutual encounters, which may hinder the free-floating group communication.