Although modern psychiatry, based on the science of the western world, has many universal values, serious gaps and problems can arise when practised in situations where helpers and victims are of different cultural backgrounds.
Traumatic reactions can be conceived differently according to the cultural background of a victim, as can expectations of what the most effective healing process will look like.
Contextual thinking offers an appropriate paradigm for intercultural trauma treatment. In treating the psychological sequelae of trauma, one should acknowledge the necessity of focussing both on the intrapsychic and biological dimensions of traumatic experience and on the interpersonal and socio-political/cultural dimensions. In addition, it is sometimes necessary to account for experiences transmitted through different generations, myths or stories from the past that shape worldviews.