Puerto Rico Se Levanta: Advocacy service and research in the aftermath of Hurricane María.

Abstract

This piece will examine the experiences of two Puerto Rican researchers who engaged in advocacy service and research with Puerto Rican communities on the island and in the United States in the aftermath of Hurricane María. Through this piece, the authors will share the challenges associated with conducting research and leading advocacy efforts as well as the rewards inherent from this work. Most specifically, the authors will discuss the secondary trauma and healing they experienced through their work with the Puerto Rican community as well as the ethical dilemmas they encountered throughout this process. The authors will discuss how these dilemmas were identified and navigated through the American Psychological Association's (APA) ethics code and the National Latinx Ethical Guidelines.

Naming and unlearning psychological coloniality.

“…In response to this continued psychological coloniality, an increasingly rich literature has sought to unlearn and unsettle the reproduction of colonial logics and power dynamics in the psychology profession (e.g., Cohen, 2022;Goodman & Gorski, 2015;Okazaki et al, 2008;Stevens & Sonn, 2021;Teo, 2015). Scholarly efforts have also focused on critiquing and understanding the psychology of colonial oppression on formerly and currently colonized populations (e.g., Capielo Rosario et al, 2022;Cokley, 2002;David, 2008;Gone & Trimble, 2012;Okazaki et al, 2008;Speight, 2007;Utsey et al, 2015). A review of the literature shows that part of the efforts to dismantle psychological coloniality has also centered on offering postcolonial and decolonial psychological methods, theories, and practices, including critical consciousness of anti-Black racism (Mosley et al, 2021), ethnopolitical psychology (Comas-Díaz, 2007), intersectionality in psychotherapy (Adames et al, 2018), healing ethno-racial trauma (Chavez-Dueñas et al, 2019), historical trauma (Hartmann et al, 2019), Indigenous culture as treatment , liberation psychology (Martín Baró, 1986;Montero, 2003), marginal methods (Trimble, 2021), social analysis (Moane, 2003), and the psychology of radical healing (Adames et al, 2022;French et al, 2020).…”

“…As the weeks passed and I saw the youth engaging, I began to let go of colonial narratives that told me that acompañamiento was not ethical and that it was not appropriate work for a future psychologist. In fact, these boundary crossings and multiple roles set the stage for collective healing (Capielo Rosario et al, 2022).…”