Considerations for Counselors

Interviews

• 23 year old Latina woman—Minneapolis, MN– Peruvian mother, American father– Mother immigrated from Peru– Lived in US her whole life

• 31 year old Latino man—Los Angeles, CA– Mexican mother and father– Immigrated to US when he was 4 years old– Lived in LA since then

FamilyFamilismo—“ The importance of the roles played by other family members in your life, the

feeling of community within the whole family.” (23 year old Latina) • Value close relationships• Stress interdependence, cohesiveness, and cooperation• Often includes extended family• Collectivist worldview • Shared sense of responsibility for children

– los compadres (godparents)• Provide financial and emotional support to family• Decision-making among members of family

• Counselors often diagnosed behaviors as pathological– Enmeshed and codependent

• Counselors should examine own views of family and connectedness while being open to positive aspects of familismo

Language and Family• “There are sporadic times when my mom still asks me to

culturally translate something for her, but very few and far between. It usually has something to do with sayings that don’t make literal sense. I do not mind at all and find it rather cute. When I was younger, I thought of it as a bit embarrassing and awkward. I grew up and realized she didn’t mean anything by asking other than wanting to know. I put myself in her shoes and have a different viewpoint now.”

• “About half of my mother’s family speaks Spanish and maybe even a little English. My brother and I, along with a couple of my other cousins do not speak Spanish fluently so there is a language barrier. This proves to be difficult especially when only means of communication when living so far apart is the telephone.”

GenderMarianismo—“ Marianismo is when a woman “acts as a lady should” proper and keeping her

private relationship life private. I was expected to uphold this at all times, as I always represent not only myself but my family as well.” (23 year old Latina)

• self-sacrificing, spiritual strength, humble, virtuous, silent power of family• “Virgin Mary”-like

Machismo—“ A macho or over-masculine attitude upheld by Latin men, gives the men a little

more lenience for acting like “a guy.” As a female, we were to not step on a man’s pride or emasculate them because as we were to allow them to be masculine.” (23 year old Latina)

“We were raised to always look out for each other, yet as a man, I was raised with the ‘do what you have to do’ mentality.” (31 year old Latino)

• men’s responsibility to provide for, protect, and defend their families• loyalty

Strengths in Diversity

• worldview that emphasizes harmony, unity, cooperation, and cyclical view of life

• greater sense of personal identity compared to many Anglo-Americans

• resiliency derived from religion and family• pioneer spirit in the face of adversity and

structural barriers• a sense of debt and responsibility to one’s

cultural heritage

Guidelines for Counseling• Prepare family—explain what they should expect

from sessions• Assume a “humble expert” approach with the

family• Focus on developing a therapeutic alliance• Use the family narrative to define the problem• Check for themes of loss and grief• Assess levels of acculturations of family members• Pursue presenting problems and symptoms from a

functional framework rather than the identification of diagnoses and systemic dysfunctions

Guidelines Continued• Reframe intergenerational and acculturation problems as

a “culture-conflict” problem and not as a family problem• Incorporate the family belief system into the intervention• Maximize the available resources in the family• Avoid gender stereotypes• Incorporate spirituality and folk healers when applicable• Learn Spanish or develop working knowledge• Develop techniques that will allow clients to express in

Spanish (if preferred) even if counselor doesn’t understand

• Learn limitations of interpreters and translated materials• Use standardized assessments sparingly, if at all