In this reflexive essay I share my experiences as a trauma-focused psychotherapist serving Spanish-speaking Latinx survivors of violence in New York City during the COVID-19 pandemic. Successes and challenges of working with this population during the pandemic are highlighted and connected to broader realities in the mental health field. Vicarious trauma is presented from the lens of a practitioner who shares a similar background to the population served.
The mental health system in the United States faces challenges in adequately engaging the Latinx population with modalities that conform to the Latinx worldview, which demands incorporating holistic, family-centric, and trauma-informed models of treatment. Service provision and innovation is hampered by lack of research focusing on this population, the low numbers of Latinx clinicians available, and the lack of treatment adaptations to meet their needs. Psychotherapeutic interventions employed in the Latin American context are potentially useful when working with acculturating Latinx. In this article attention is given to barriers and facilitators for incorporating Family constellation therapy—a holistic trauma-informed treatment modality that offers conflict resolution through connection with ancestry.
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