Wow! This post is extremely relevant to me because my parents are Eastern European (Czech and Slovak). The immigrated here when I was a year old; I was born in Germany. Anyways, after 10 months of therapy, I have done my best to not talk about my family, but in the past couple very hard session it has become unavoidable.
My parents were always making comments about Americans, which I know affected me a lot. For example, they were always making comments about how Americans were fat, particularly American women, who were fat, unattractive, and too aggressive. Not surprisingly, I came to my T with an ED which I knew I had in part due to what my parents would say, but I never told my T this until recently because I didn't want her to judge my parents and also because I felt that I would be betraying them in some way. My parents were always talking about how what happened in the family should stay in the family and how Americans liked to meddle in other people's business (ie. Family Services, etc.), so it makes it SOOO hard to talk to T about my family because of what my parents instilled in me. But this last session I was finally able to open up. I told her that my parents were "different" because they were not from the States and I started explaining how, like what they said about American women's weight and their whole thing about not talking about what happened in the family. I know it has been very hard for me to open up about them in part because they are from a different culture, I don't want her to judge them, and because I was brought up to beleive that Americans talked too much about their problems and were too sensitive.
Oh and PS. my parents also always said that American liked to hug each other too much. My T hugged me once, which was nice although I was very awkward about it. I actually really want my T to hug me again but I think if she did I would freak out. One time I had frozen up and I heard her shifting in her seat and I though she was going to get up and sit next to me, and all I kep thinking was "Oh god, if she sits next to me I am out of here." but a part of me wants her to be close to me.