Abstract
The purpose of this study was to explore a variety of characteristics of experienced Latino psychotherapists in an attempt to clarify elements of cultural competence. The sixty five subjects were from a sample of convenience recruited from mental health agencies serving predominantly Latino clients in the San Francisco Bay area. The first part of the study consisted of two focus groups with Latino clinicians to discuss culturally competent services and to generate ideas to inform a preliminary questionnaire. The second part consisted of administering the questionnaire to the sample. Results were mixed, revealing a combination of responses indicating clinical interventions based upon universally accepted principles, and those uniquely used with Latino clients which were more clearly associated with the cultural traits of Latinos.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Acosta, F. X. (1982). Group psychotherapy with Spanish-speaking patients. In R. M. Becerra, M. Karno, and J. I. Escobar (Eds.), Mental health and Hispanic Americans (pp. 183–197). New York: Grune & Stratton.
Atkinson, D. R., Poston, W. C., Furlong, M. J., & Mercado, P. (1989). Ethnic group preferences of counselor characteristics. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 36, 68–72.
Cohen, R. E. (1972). Principles of preventive mental health programs for ethnic minority populations: The acculturation of Puerto Ricans to the United States. American Journal of Psychiatry, 128(12), 1529–1533.
Comas-Diaz, L. (1981). Effects of cognitive and behavioral group treatment on depressive symptomology of Puerto Rican women. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 49, 627–632.
Costantino, G., Malgady, R. G., & Rogler, L. H. (1986). Cuento therapy: A culturally sensitive modality for Puerto Rican children. Journal of Counseling and Clinical Psychology, 54, 639–645.
Cronbach, L. J. (1951). Coefficient alpha and the internal structure of tests. Psychometrika, 16, 297–334.
Dean, W. E., Parker, B. A., & Williams, B. C. (1976). Training mental health professionals for the Black community. Journal of Black Psychology, 3(1), 14–19.
Flaskrud, J. H. (1986). The effects of culture compatible intervention on the utilization of mental health services by minority clients. Community Mental Health Journal, 22, 127–141.
Folensbee, R. W., Draguns, J. G., & Danish, S. J. (1986). Impact of two types of counselor intervention on Black American, Puerto Rican, and Anglo-American analogue clients. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 33, 446–453.
Gibbons, J. (1993). Nonparametric statistics: An introduction. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.
Guarnaccia, P. J., Parra, P., Deschamps, A., & Milstein, G. (1992). Si Dios quiere: Hispanic families experiences of caring for a seriously mentally ill family member. Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry, 16(2), 187–215.
Jerrell, J. M. (1995). The effects of client-therapist match on service use and costs. Administration and Policy in Mental Health, 23(2), 119–126.
Jones, E. E. (1982). Psychotherapists' impressions of treatment outcomes as a function of race. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 38, 722–731.
Lindman, R. (1977). Self-ratings and linguistic proficiency in bilingual subjects. Language & Speech, 20(4), 325–332.
Malgady, R. G., Rogler, L. H., & Costantino, G. (1990). Culturally sensitive psychotherapy for Puerto Rican Children and adolescents: A program of treatment outcome research. Journal of Counseling and Clinical Psychology, 58, 704–712.
Munoz, R. F. (1982). The Spanish-speaking consumer and the community mental health center. In E. Jones and S. Korchin (Eds.), Minority mental health. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
Negron-Velasquez, G. (1994a). Consumers satisfaction with mental health services: Testing satisfaction across health sectors and health settings. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ.
Negron-Velasquez, G. (1994b). A profile of Latino MSW students in California: Implications for recruitment and retention. Unpublished manuscript presented at the Latino Social Work Network Conference, Los Angeles California, November 10, 1995.
Organista, K. C., & Dwyer, E. V. (1996). Clinical case management and cognitive behavioral therapy: Integrated psychosocial services for depressed Latino primary care patients. In P. Manoleas (Ed.), The cross-cultural practice of clinical case management in mental health. Binghamton, NY: The Haworth Press.
Organista, K. C., Munoz, R. F., & Gonzalez, G. (1994). Cognitive-behavioral therapy for depression in low income and minority outpatients: Description of a program and exploratory analyses. Cognitive Therapy and Research 18(3), 241–259.
Padilla, A. M., & Salgado De Snyder, N. (1985). Counseling Hispanics: Strategies for effective intervention. In P. Pedersen (Ed.), Handbook of cross-cultural counseling and therapy (pp. 157–164). Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
Pomales, J., & Williams, V. (1989). Effects of level of acculturation and counseling style on Hispanic students' perceptions of counselors. Journal of Consulting Psychology, 36, 79–83.
Ponce, F. Q., & Atkinson, D. R. (1989). Mexican-American acculturation, counselor ethnicity, counseling style, and perceived counselor credibility. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 36, 203–208.
Roberts, R. E., Attkisson, C., & Stegner, B. L. (1983). A client satisfaction scale suitable for use with Hispanics? Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 5(4), 461–476.
Rogler, L. H., Cooney, R. S., Costantino, G., Early, B. F., Grossman, B., Gurak, D. T., Malgady, R., & Rodriguez, O. (1983). A conceptual framework for mental health research on Hispanic populations. Bronx, NY: Fordham University, Hispanic Research Center.
Rogler, L. H., Malgady, R. G., Costantino, G., & Blumenthal, R. (1987). What do culturally sensitive mental health services mean?: The case of Hispanics. American Psychologist, 42, 565–570.
Rogler, L. H., Malgady, R. G., & Rodriguez, O. (1989). Hispanics and mental health: A framework for research. Malabar, FL: Krieger Publishing Co.
Romero, J. (1980). Hispanic support systems: Health-mental health promotion strategies. In R. Valle and W. Vega (Eds.), Hispanic natural support systems. Sacramento, CA: State of California, Department of Mental Health.
Sue, S., Fujino, D. C., Hu, L. T., Takeuchi, D. T., & Zane, N. W. (1991). Community mental health services for ethnic minority groups: A test of the cultural responsiveness hypothesis. Journal of Counseling and Consulting Psychology, 59(4), 533–540.
Szapocznik, J., Rio, A., Murray, E., Cohen R., Scopetta, M., Rivas-Vazquez, A., Hervis, O., Posada, V., & Kurtines, W. (1989). Structural family versus psychodynamic child therapy for problematic Hispanic boys. Journal of Counseling and Clinical Psychology, 57, 571–578.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Manoleas, P., Organista, K., Negron-Velasquez, G. et al. Characteristics of Latino Mental Health Clinicians: A Preliminary Examination. Community Ment Health J 36, 383–394 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1001908912288
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1001908912288