Interpersonal violence and the immigrant context.

Abstract

A licia is a 48-year-old Bolivian American heterosexual, cisgender woman who emigrated from Bolivia to the United States as an adolescent, along with her older sister. 1 She was sexually assaulted twice, once by a relative in Bolivia and once by a stranger a few months before seeking help from a physician to cope with headaches. She did not disclose her sexual violations to her parents or sister. She confided in her adult daughter about being raped by a stranger, and her daughter encouraged her to meet with a physician, who then referred her to work with me in psychotherapy. When I met Alicia, she stated, "There is no way that I could have told my parents and no way for me to speak. I'm alive but I don't always feel like it. I just survive for my daughter. She needs me." Alicia's daughter attends college near their home and worries about her mother's deteriorating physical health and sadness. In her sessions, Alicia began to share her anxiety and sadness about her trauma, and her sense of fear and hopelessness about the dangerous environment in which her daughter lives. She stated, "I came here with my sister so that we don't have to live in an unsafe place, but now everything here is unsafe," referring to the rise in explicit xenophobia and misogyny in the United States. Sadly, Alicia is among many others whose traumatic stress based in interpersonal violence has been exacerbated in the current sociopolitical climate.Interpersonal violence, such as childhood physical and sexual abuse, rape, and intimate partner violence (IPV), is a global crisis. Among racial minority