Expired Dimelo en Español: Strengthening Latinx Families Using a Socially Just Approach

The Latinx Youth & Family Immigration Project recognizes that despite the wish and efforts to maintain cultural diversity awareness in therapy, Latinx families are frequently faced with approaches that are incongruent to their cultural needs. Families often have to adjust to mainstream models rather than the model attending to their unique situations. Throughout the years Latinx families have been vulnerable to harmful health disparities and injustices that impact their sense of self and security, their sense of agency in parenting bilingual/bicultural children and their hopes for their future as a family. In this workshop, we will examine a family therapy framework that at its core adopts and attends to cultural sensitivity, issues of oppression, and the stance of the therapist.

Learning Objectives:

• To review guidelines for attending to the needs of Latinx immigrant families
• To explore dilemmas of parenting and being parented in between two worlds
• To explore social justice and multicultural lenses when working with the Latinx immigrant population

Presenters:

Silvia B. Espinal, LCSW began her family therapy training while she was a graduate student at NYU Silver School of Social Work. She is Director of the Latinx Youth & Family Immigration Project at the Ackerman Institute. Silvia has extensive experience working with Latinx immigrant families in community-based mental health facilities, hospital settings, educational institutions, and in her private practice. Her focus has been integrating diversity and issues of social justice with clinical cases. As a native Spanish speaker, a Latina immigrant from Perù, and a family system trained psychotherapist, her personal and professional journeys have helped her grow a genuine and unique passion for the Latinx community in New York. Therefore, she uses cultural sensitivity as the foundation of her work with Latinx immigrant families.

Genoveva Garcia, LCSW is a bilingual psychotherapist in New York City. Genoveva received her master’s degree from the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College. She holds a Psychology Degree from Mexico, (Licenciada en Psycología) by the Instituto Tecnológico y Estudios Superiores de Occidente (ITESO). Genoveva is a graduate of the Ackerman Institute and currently serves as faculty at the Institute. She is the Associate Director of the Latinx Youth and Family Immigration Project. In addition to these roles, she maintains a private practice in New York City. Genoveva’s personal experience as an immigrant from Mexico and her journey as a family systems trained psychotherapist inform her commitment to working with diverse communities using a relational, culturally sensitive, and socially-just framework.