The traditional Mestizo view: Implications for modern psychotherapeutic interventions.

Abstract

Hispanics in the United States represent a unique cultural group with a distinct world view based on European and Indigenous American beliefs. People of Spanish and Native American heritage are known as Mestizos. This fusion produced a distinct Mestizo epistemology that presents a challenge to Western mental health practitioners who are not familiar with the Mestizo tradition. This article provides mental health professionals with an overview of basic Mestizo tenets. Fundamental issues such as the Mestizo perception of health, the mind-body relationship, metaphysics, in addition to family and community factors are discussed in order to increase therapeutic sensitivity when working with Mestizos. Concrete suggestions for dealing with these factors are outlined. A holographic model is suggested as a Western-based means of understanding the Mestizo perspective. A holographic paradigm is also recommended as a unifying conceptual model between the two divergent world views.

Latino healing: The integration of ethnic psychology into psychotherapy.

“…Consequently, ethnic approaches facilitate this requirement by providing a cultural holding environment (Freire, 1970). Sanacio ´n predicates a holistic pan relational worldview that involves ancestral and sacred affiliations in healing (Morones & Mikawa, 1992). For instance, the shamanic tradition views illness as a process of purification, whereas the sufferer receives a call to destroy her "sick" existence in order to experience life more fully and completely in a higher state of awareness (Kalweit, 1989).…”

Examination of the Impact of Ethnicity on the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) Fake Bad Scale

“…This may reflect a tendency to express distress globally, rather than more Western and scientific conceptualizations that parse distress into separable somatic and psychologic dimensions (Angel & Thoits, 1987;Koss, 1990;Morones & Mikawa, 1992). For example, Interian, Allen, Gara, Escobar, and Diaz-Martinez (2006) found that, compared to non-Hispanics, Hispanics' endorsement on the somatic symptom module of the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-15) was more related to psychiatric distress than to a history of medically unexplained symptoms.…”

The SALUD model of family therapy with undocumented Latinx youth.

“…Praying, constructing a mantra, or invoking a larger cosmic presence are treatment interventions that are used to highlight the youth's spiritual and religious strengths and to reframe the youth's higher power as a protective, accepting, and affirming spiritual agent (Espinoza & García, 2008). In SALUD, the existence of a unifying creator, the influence of unseen forces, and clients' relationship with deities are discussed and accepted as core aspects of the spiritual worldview of Latinx families that are relevant to treatment (McNeill & Cervantes, 2008;Morones & Mikawa, 1992).…”