Exploring How Gender and Culture Shape the Lived Experiences of Indian Clients with Emotional Abuse: A Social Justice Approach to Counselling

Abstract

In this study, we have carried out an in-depth, idiographic exploration of how Indian clients describe their experiences of emotional abuse in a parent-adult child context from a social justice lens. This study focused on the contribution of persisting systemic influences, including gender and culture, in maintaining emotional abuse. We collected data from seven participants through a semi-structured interview schedule, and utilized an interpretative phenomenological analysis for the research design and analysis. Findings indicated various cultural and gender norms were responsible for contributing to and maintaining emotional abuse. The five master themes developed included Unmet Emotional Needs, Mental Health Issues due to Impact of Emotional Abuse, Gender and Culture Norms as Backgrounded, Unfair and Oppressive Norms and Attitudes, and Intergenerational Nature of Norms, Beliefs, and Abuse. Implications for counsellors, policymakers, and researchers in the fields of counselling and psychotherapy, social justice, social psychology, and critical psychology are discussed.