Ethnopsychiatry ideas of French origin form a primary theoretical and practical frame of reference. By cross-cultural clinical psychology, we mean caring for the health of people across the boundaries and divisions between people and between cultures.

F. Sironi (2001) suggests drawing on the root etymology of the word "ethnopsychiatry" - which we consider synonymous with cross-cultural psychology - to clarify the scope of these disciplines:
- ethnos : group of people, refers to the collective cultural context;
- psyche : soul, breath of life, refers to the psychological history of the individual, the person;
- iatry: : care, not as the exclusive province of a doctor but that of any helping professional.

Cross-cultural clinical psychology is a cross-disciplinary concept that explores the knowledge and tools of professionals who work for the health and care of people, keeping in consideration the cultural s of those who give and those who receive help. In Italy, Roberto Beneduce (2004) elucidates ethnopyschiatry's areas of interest and action. Ethnopsychiatry studies the relationship between the state of psychological well-being or distress and the realms of a person's life: cultural, social, historical and political. Cultural values, social and economic organization, interethnic and power relations, conflicts, wars, urbanization and migration are essential factors in the balance of a person's health. Human societies develop different psychopathological symptoms and distress, corresponding to specific systems of care, the subject of the study of ethnopsychiatry.

The frames of reference for cross-cultural psychology, ethnopsychiatry or ethnopyschology and cultural psychology, as well as medical anthropology and anthropology of contemporary society, provide theoretical and practical tools needed to operate on the lines of divide between different cultures.