La Clinica In LaK’ech: Establishing a Practicum Site Integrating Practice, Advocacy, and Research With Latinx Clients

Abstract

This article concerns the establishment and development of La Clinica In LaK’ech, a bilingual mental health clinic collectively founded and staffed by a counseling psychologist and doctoral students in a counseling psychology doctoral program in the Southeast United States. During over 5 years of existence, the clinic has blended bilingual counseling psychology services, advocacy, interdisciplinary collaboration, and research with the Latinx population. The authors describe the development of the clinic and resultant clinical, training, and ethical issues that confronted the clinic in terms of providing services to a marginalized community in a state where anti-immigrant rhetoric, detention, and deportations were escalating. Also discussed are implications for training in practice, advocacy, service, and research for counseling psychologists working with Latinx communities.

En Sus Propias Palabras (in their own words): Reflections of Spanish–English bilingual psychologists and trainees in the United States.

“…Finally, the reflections provided insight to risk for burnout. Bilingual clinicians may face a significant workload outside of the scheduled clinical time when working with Spanish-speaking clients (e.g., including higher case management needs, efforts to culturally adapt interventions and testing protocols, translating existing resources; Delgado-Romero et al, 2021; Teran et al, 2017). This situation creates a high risk for burnout, stemming from low self-efficacy and overcommitment to covering all the needs of all bilingual patients.…”

“…Furthermore, evaluating patient satisfaction when there is access to culturally responsive, Spanish-speaking providers is warranted. There are also many opportunities for advocacy to support trainees and practicing psychologists who are committed to working with a Latine, Spanish-speaking population in their own language (Delgado-Romero et al, 2021). It will be important for those who hold power (i.e., program directors) to provide support and advocate for their bilingual providers and trainees.…”

“…Specific training and supports to deliver high-quality, linguistically, and culturally appropriate services are needed to prepare future bilingual psychologists (Field et al, 2010). Literature focused on training issues (Castaño et al, 2007; Valencia-Garcia & Montoya, 2018; Verdinelli & Biever, 2009, 2013) and guidance for training solutions (Delgado-Romero et al, 2021; Peters et al, 2014; Platt, 2012) have been previously presented but not widely implemented. One of these examples is a multifaceted curriculum by Biever et al (2011), known as the Psychological Services for Spanish-Speaking Populations (PSSSP) training program.…”

Applying critical consciousness through the use of testimonios to rethink Latinx cultural values.

“…The Latinx communities in the United States are heterogeneous groups that represent diverse ancestral heritages, varying histories of colonization, politics, traditions, and migration patterns to and from Latin America (Delgado-Romero et al, 2018;Santiago-Rivera et al, 2002). Yet, the psychological literature that has been generated by practitioners and researchers alike often sets aside this heterogeneity in favor of heuristic and parsimonious models that attempt to capture perceived similarities across Latinx groups based on value systems, beliefs, and behaviors (Añez et al, 2008;Delgado-Romero et al, 2021). These perceived similarities are reflected in the concept of Latinidad when referring to the identity of Latinxs in the United States.…”