Latinx Attachment & Rejection 

By: Amina Abdel-Aziz

The resources of worksheets are meant to aid Latinx clients that have dealt with abandonment and feelings of rejection from their own ethnic group. Through an intragroup lens, the Latinx community faces disparities that disproportionately affects them more than any other ethnic group, while also being the least underrepresented and understudied ethnic group when it comes to the issues of abandonment and rejection. There are intergenerational feelings such as the anticipation of being rejected that gets passed down onto Latinx individuals, which enhances the effects of rejection and exclusion, thus leading to higher rates of behavioral health disparities. Furthermore, Transgender and Nonbinary Latinx feel the burden of rejection from family at a level where they feel pressured and forced to pick an identity that is deemed socially acceptable in order to avoid being rejected by family members.

By providing these resources of worksheets, two that are separate to their respective topics, consisting of a focus on the feelings, thought processes, trauma and cultural healing, as well as cognitive restructuring, there is the capability to help make the Latinx community prosper with an additional resource in the counseling field. Even though these worksheets are targeted directly towards aiding the Latinx community and the lack of resources provided to them, this can also be a tool for other ethnic groups within multicultural counseling that feels the brunt of the issues that come with abandonment and rejection, especially within ethnic groups where there are a lot of intergenerational trauma and feelings passed down. 

References

Gamio Cuervo, Á., Herrawi, F., Horne, S. G., & Wilkins-Yel, K. G. (2023). Recreating diasporic identity and community: Examination of transgender and nonbinary latinx healing from family rejection. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 70(5), 535–547. https://doi-org.offcampus.lib.washington.edu/10.1037/cou0000692

Mata-Greve, F., & Torres, L. (2019). Rejection and Latina/o mental health: Intragroup marginalization and intragroup separation. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 89(6),
716–726. https://doi-org.offcampus.lib.washington.edu/10.1037/ort0000368