Counseling Immigrants Discussion Paper

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Please read “Counseling Model for Immigrants” in its entirety. It may be helpful to read this document several times before submitting your answers. Imagine that you have an immigrant client who comes from a collectivistic society (collectivism is associated with countries in Asia, Africa, Central and South America, and the Pacific Islands). Write a transcript of an imaginary session with this client (you can choose your client’s gender, name, country of origin, sexual orientation, age and any other cultural factors that you may wish to include in your transcript). During the session, the client’s main problem should be related to his/her difficulty adapting to an individualistic society. For example, your client may be experiencing distress after immigrating to the U.S. because he/she finds difficult or impossible to develop the type of relationships he/she had with others in his/her home country. In order to help your client, you should help him/her create a “Bicultural Identity Table” by asking him/her about the positive and the negative aspects of living in a collectivistic society and by asking him/her about the positive and the negative aspects of living in an individual society. You should use the information provided in the document “Counseling Model for Immigrants” to understand the immigration experience from an existential perspective and to understand how to apply the dialectical perspective to the development of a bicultural identity. It should be clear in your transcript that you understood how to use the integrative model proposed in the document. Your transcript should have between 2 and 4 pages, single spaced, and look like a transcript verbatim:

Counselor: blah, blah, blah

Client: blah, blah, blah.

Please read the information below to understand the meaning of “collectivism” and “individualism”:

A collectivist culture is one in which people tend to view themselves as members of groups (families, work units, tribes, nations), and usually consider the needs of the group to be more important than the needs of individuals. Individualistic societies such as the U.S. and Australia are said to prioritize individual achievement, whereas collectivists are said to place more value on group harmony. In individualistic societies, when there is a conflict between an individual’s rights and the collective’s rights, there is a tendency to favor the individual over the collective. In collectivistic societies, when there is a conflict between an individual’s rights and the collective’s rights, there is a tendency to favor the collective over the individual. For example, a man from a collectivistic society would be more likely than one from an individualistic society to give up his own dreams in order to fulfill the needs of his family or community (e.g. deciding to stay in his hometown supporting his family rather than going to an Ivy league school).

CounselingModelforImmigrants_Espinola2.pdf

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Espinola (2012) integrated aspects of feminist therapy, DBT, existen>al therapy, and mul>cultural therapy into a new counseling model that has the objec>ve of appropriately targe>ng the issues that affect immigrants. Espinola developed this model aFer seeing that a large number of mental health prac>>oners struggle when aGemp>ng to understand how the immigra>on process can impact immigrants’ well being. The author was concerned about counselors who have difficulty dealing with the cultural aspects of their clients’ presenta>on. She realized that many counselors ignore immigra>on experiences completely and conceptualize immigrants’ cases the same way they would conceptualize the cases of minority clients who were born in the US or the cases of Caucasian clients; they pathologize their clients’ presenta>on based on their own values, or they work to ins>ll in their clients their own values. She also no>ced that other counselors are so afraid of being perceived as being poli>cally incorrect or insensi>ve to clients’ culture that they make no aGempts to empower their clients to change or leave their environments even when those environments are severely affec>ng their clients’ well being.

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Mul>cultural therapy and feminist therapy share some similari>es that the author decided to incorporate in this counseling model. These aspects include: the development of a collabora>ve and egalitarian rela>onship between the counselor and the client, the recogni>on of the client in the social context, the empowerment of the client, and the importance of working towards social change.

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Espinola (2012) used the existen>al model because she found it to be helpful when explaining many of the struggles that immigrants go through during the immigra>on process. She believes that one of the reasons why the immigra>on experience is so overwhelming is because it leads individuals into existen>al crises that are very difficult to overcome. Espinola (2012) argues that there are five existen>al issues (iden>ty, isola>on, death, meaning, and freedom) that can play a role in the treatment of immigrant clients. Counseling Immigrants Discussion Paper

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AFer arriving in the U.S., many immigrants struggle with issues regarding their own iden>ty. Some women immigrants who come from cultures that have patriarchal systems may feel that occupying the role of providers for their families nega>vely affects their female iden>ty. For example, these clients may say that they feel more “like a man” or they may ask “Is this what a woman should do?” when speaking about occupying the role of the head of household. Others struggle with issues aGached to their na>onal iden>ty, par>cularly when they are iden>fied by people in their home country as traitors for leaving them behind. Changes in economic status can significantly impact the way immigrants see themselves or the way in which they are perceived by others. Immigrants oFen feel obligated to change their cultural values in order to “fit in.” Difficul>es speaking English can lead immigrants to remain isolated and lose the ability to find their place in society. When immigrants find that their new role in society is of lower status than the one they had in their countries of origin, they can struggle with low self esteem and low self confidence. Immigrants who are LGBTQ oFen face different experiences when they arrive in the U.S. Some of them may have a history of hiding their sexual iden>ty and they may decide to be open about their sexuality aFer arriving. Others who come from countries that are more accep>ng of LGBTQs may feel obligated to do the opposite and hide their sexual orienta>on aFer immigra>ng. Counseling Immigrants Discussion Paper

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Immigrants confront isola>on at different levels aFer arriving to the U.S. First, they find themselves away from their country of origin and oFen unable to go back for long periods of >me. Second, moving from a collec>vis>c society to an individualis>c society can severely impact their ability to develop meaningful rela>onships with others . Third, immigra>ng to the U.S. very oFen leads them to be away from family members, friends, and other loved ones. Finally, since immigrants can experience language difficul>es, lack of knowledge about social customs, discrimina>on, and racism, their feelings of isola>on can become even more overwhelming .

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Immigrants may face the idea of death in different instances. Some immigrants may interpret their life changes as the death of the person they used to be or as the death of life as they knew it. Moreover, being unable to go back to their home countries can prevent them “from being there” when a family member or a friend dies. Thus, increasing the feelings of guilt that many people experience when dealing with grief. Immigrants who arrive to the U.S. on their own can struggle with the idea that if they die “nobody will know or nobody will care.”

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Immigra>ng to the U.S. can lead individuals to ques>on the meaning of their lives par>cularly if they grew up believing that such meaning was aGached to the role they occupy in their families or in their communi>es.

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Immigra>ng to the U.S. allows some individuals to experience more freedom, especially those who come to this country escaping poli>cal persecu>on. However, becoming an immigrant can lead to serious limita>ons such as language difficul>es, poverty, lack of access to educa>on and health care, lack of social support, discrimina>on, and racism.

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In order to explain immigrants’ behaviors, Espinola (2012) applied the dialec>cal perspec>ve that Linehan (1993) uses in DBT to the immigra>on experience. Dialec>cs focuses on the immediate and larger context of behavior, as well as the interrelatedness of individual behavior paGerns. In this model, the immediate context of behavior is the environment in which the immigrant is immersed while in therapy (e.g. abusive rela>onship, oppressive work environment) while the larger context of behavior includes not only the social context in the U.S. but the social context in the immigrant’s country of origin. In terms of interrelatedness of behavior paGerns, this model focuses on the rela>onship between the person’s behavior paGerns in her home country with the person’s behavior paGerns in the U.S.

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From a dialec>cal perspec>ve, reality is composed of internal opposing forces (thesis and an>thesis) out of whose synthesis evolves a new set of opposing forces. In the cases of immigrants, Espinola (2012) sees the opposing forces as: 1) the cultural values from the immigrants’ home country and 2) the U.S. cultural values, out of whose synthesis evolves a bicultural iden>ty which is also formed by opposing forces. Counseling Immigrants Discussion Paper

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As shown in this graphic, Espinola (2012) sees every cultural value as composed of two internal opposing forces that must be recognized during the counseling process in order to allow the person to develop a bicultural iden>ty. For example, she believes that one of the forces in the cultural value of machismo can lead men to act as protectors and providers for their families while the opposing force is the one that can lead men to act as oppressors towards their families. For trauma therapy, this is a very important concept because the same cultural value that can be beneficial for a woman’s recovery can be detrimental for another woman’s treatment. While a woman can benefit from having the support of a caring husband or father who see his role as the protector of the family, another client may be suffering from oppression because her husband or father sees himself as having the right to control her or abuse her. Another example is religion. Religion can be a great source of strength, support, and life meaning but the role of religion can also be detrimental in cases in which the client is ostracized and shamed due to her sexual orienta>on. Espinola (2012) believes that in order to properly serve immigrant clients, counselors must be able to look at their own cultural values and recognize these opposing forces. For example, in the case of individualism. Although individualism can allow a person to feel free, it can also lead a person to feel lonely and isolated. A fundamental aspect of examining cultural values from a dialec>cal perspec>ve is that cultural values should not be interpreted as “good” or “bad.” When counselors examine a specific cultural value with clients, they should tell them, “this cultural

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is not good or bad, it just ‘is.’” Every value can be interpreted from an opposite perspec>ve and remaining open to that can allow counselors to beGer understand clients from other cultures. Moreover, it can allow clients to develop a bicultural iden>ty and switch between cultural iden>>es when appropriate without feeling distraught or unease. This issue is very important because immigrant clients oFen maintain rela>onships with people in their home country or with people who are very aGached to the clients’ home countries’ cultural values. Thus, an absolute rejec>on of their home countries’ cultural values can lead immigrants to feel isolated and unable to connect to their family members or to people who share the same background. On the other hand, an absolute rejec>on of U.S. cultural values may lead the clients to be unable to succeed financially, academically, or in their rela>onships with others. That is why Espinola found that applying the dialec>cal perspec>ve to the immigra>on experience can lead immigrants to develop a bicultural iden>ty that allows them to thrive in both cultures.

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Here’s an exercise that Espinola (2012) created to help clients develop a bicultural iden>ty. During this exercise, the counselor and the client work collabora>vely to iden>fy the posi>ve and the nega>ve aspects of a specific cultural value, Then, they explore the posi>ve and the nega>ve aspects of a value from the U.S. that could be seen as opposite than the cultural value being examined. In this case, the value being examined is collec>vism. Thus, the opposite value is individualism. Counseling Immigrants Discussion Paper

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Another aspect that the author took from the dialec>cal perspec>ve is the idea that both the individual and the environment are undergoing con>nuous transi>on. As previously men>oned, many counselors strive to help their clients maintain their cultural values even when those values are damaging to the clients’ well being. What this model proposes is to allow the clients to see the opposing forces of each cultural value that plays a role in their lives. As clients become comfortable seeing the posi>ve and the nega>ve aspects of each cultural value, they will feel more free to choose what cultural values they wish to preserve and which ones they would like to stop holding or to stop holding as strongly as they did before. The author believes that counselors must be culturally sensi>ve to the cultural values that clients bring from their home countries, the cultural values that immigrants are exposed to when they arrive to the U.S, and the immigra>on experience itself. A true understanding of the immigra>on experience implies recognizing the dialec>cal aspects that are intrinsic to this experience and acknowledging the changing nature of an immigrants’ percep>on of themselves and of the world around them.

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Research suggests that developing a bicultural iden>ty can be the most beneficial outcome for immigrants. The model presented in this document can serve to help immigrants through this endeavor. The main differences between this model and what is being used right now are the following concepts: 1) the different aspects of the immigra>on process can be understood as existen>al in nature and can amount to an existen>al crisis; 2) the mul>cultural and the feminist models must serve as framework for the treatment of immigrants but cannot be used as stand alone treatments; and 3) applying the dialec>cal perspec>ve to the experiences of immigrants can help counselors beGer understand their clients and can lead clients to beGer understand themselves as they go through the immigra>on experience and as they develop a bicultural iden>ty that could help them thrive in today’s ever-‐ changing society. Counseling Immigrants Discussion Paper

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References

Espinola, M. (2012). An Introduc>on to Unica Therapy for La>na Immigrants. In S. MaroGa (Chairperson), Keeping Up with the Evidence Base: Treatments for Individuals with a History of Exposure to Violence. Symposium presented at the 120th American Psychological Associa>on Annual Conven>on, Orlando, Fl.

Linehan, M. (1993). Cogni>ve-‐behavioral treatment of borderline personality disorder. New York, NY: The Guilford Press.

Yalom, I. (1980). ExistenAal psychotherapy. New York, NY: Basic Books.

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GroupCounselingPlan-Sample.pdf