Bilingual Latinx Mental Health Concentration

In 2015, New York State approved a new concentration in Bilingual Latinx Mental Health (BLMH) counseling housed in Counseling Psychology Program at Teachers College, making it the only program New York State and the entire Tri-State area to offer culturally appropriate training in delivering mental health services in Spanish to the Latinx population. The BLMH concentration will train bilingual students with intermediary Spanish fluency to be bicultural/bilingual counselors with the necessary competencies needed to understand and provide culturally responsive care to Spanish-dominant and bilingual multi-racial Latinx clients. All courses within the BLMH concentration will be taught by bilingual faculty and/or supervised at fieldwork sites by bilingual licensed supervisors. Upon completion of the requirements, students will receive an indication of Bilingual Latinx Mental Health Concentration on their transcript. Students will take courses concurrently within the required PhD curriculum coursework.

Mission and Goals

The concentration in BLMH aspires to train students to become bilingual and bicultural mental health providers proficient to treat the Latinx population by:

1. Gaining understanding of the demographic and cultural make-up of Latinx population
2. Increasing knowledge of psychosocial factors that impact the Latinx population
3. Learning to effectively assess the varied psychological needs and expressions of distress of the Latinx client
4. Gaining the counseling skills needed to provide mental health services in Spanish
5. Acquiring the knowledge of Spanish therapeutic concepts, interventions, and terminology; and
6. Learning to apply intervention models (strategies, and techniques) to treatment of Latinx clients.

Eligibility

In order to be eligible, the student must pass the Spanish language competency requirement, complete CCPJ 5371 Counseling Skills course with a grade of B or better, complete the BLMH concentration required courses, and participate in externship in a Spanish bilingual setting.

Sample Student Schedule of Required Courses:

Fall of first year. CCPJ 4070 Counseling Linguistically Diverse Populations: Latinx Psychology (3) This course will focus on the knowledge of values, beliefs, traditions, and experiences of Latinos from varied countries. Students will learn the psychosocial issues impacting Latinos in the US, including immigration, racism, poverty, and acculturation.

Spring of first year. CCPJ 5370 Practicum in career and personal counseling: Spanish (3)
This course will focus on development of counseling skills and intervention models (i.e., strategies and techniques) that are culturally appropriate for assessing and treating Spanish-speaking Latinx clients.

Second year Fall/Spring. Bilingual students will be placed in an approved offsite-prac and/or externship clinical site that serves predominantly Spanish-speaking clients and supervised by a bilingual therapist.