This article discusses social work practice with a group of Chinese‐speaking immigrant elders in New York City who favour the use of traditional affective lexicons that communicate distress in oblique, metaphorical and somatic forms. It examines the therapeutic values of the social workers' indigenous responses, as shaped by their intuitive understanding of the latent emotional content of communication within the cultural context. The discussion affirms the importance of the emotional connection between worker and client, invariably shaped by language, cultural norms, and individual proclivity, as the universal substrate of cross‐cultural social work practice.

本文討論關於針對一群移居紐約市但仍然喜歡以傳統中文詞彙， 隱喻等溝通的華語長者的社會工作實務。本文也探索了社會工作者的本土反應包括:通過理解語言背後的文化脈絡， 從而認識當事人的潛在情緒等在治療學上的價值。本文申明了社會工作者與當事人之間情感聯系的重要性， 而這種聯系往往是由跨文化社會工作底下的語言和文化規範等塑造而成的。

Mode of access: Internet.