By Stephany Gonzalez, MFTC (bilingual Spanish/English)
Today, mental health has slowly started to lose its stigma even in the Hispanic Community. I can only speak for my experience and growing up in a Mexican American family, I have slowly seen more progress in individuals seeking treatment. An important thing can consider when seeking couples counseling is if you have ever found yourself venting or like Hispanics often say Chismiando to a friend about your relational problems. You’ll find it more helpful to seek couples counseling. Since venting will not result in the problem being solved. Considering couples counseling for Hispanic Couples? Couples counseling can help you unpack what concerns you have and brainstorm ways to get you and your relationship where you want it to be.
Counseling Hispanic Communities
In the Hispanic community, therapy is often taboo. You may have grown up hearing “Los trapitos sucios se lavan en la casa” which is similar to “don’t air your dirty laundry”. Whether you are a member of the Hispanic community or you are dating someone who is. You may experience conflicting views with your partner.
For example, a concept within the Hispanic community is Machismo (Midande,1977, as cited in Nuñez, 2017) defined Machismo as encompassing positive and negative aspects of masculinity, including bravery, honor, dominance, aggression, sexism, sexual prowess, reserved emotion. As previously mentioned, Machismo can hold positive and negative masculinity traits, therefore it may be beneficial to have a conversation about how it impacts your relationship.
If you would like to explore more about the topic of Machismo and its association with negative cognitive-emotional factors please feel free to visit the link below.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5102330/
Topic to explore in couples counseling
Machismo is just one example of a topic you may want to explore in couples counseling. However, it’s important to know that you don’t need to seek couples counseling until there is a problem in your relationship. You can find that there are things in your daily life you may want to improve. Such as the following:
*Communication
*Sexual Desire
*Blended families
*Household responsibility
*Aggression
*Sexism
If you find this article or the topics resonate with you. I encourage you to call or make an appointment to meet with me and we can see if we may be a good match. In helping you through your healing journey.
Reference
Nuñez A, González P, Talavera GA, Sanchez-Johnsen L, Roesch SC, Davis SM, Arguelles W, Womack VY, Ostrovsky NW, Ojeda L, Penedo FJ, Gallo LC. Machismo, Marianismo, and Negative Cognitive-Emotional Factors: Findings From the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos Sociocultural Ancillary Study. J Lat Psychol. 2016 Nov;4(4):202-217. doi: 10.1037/lat0000050. Epub 2015 Oct 19. PMID: 27840779; PMCID: PMC5102330.
