{"id":50035,"date":"2019-10-18T17:35:00","date_gmt":"2019-10-18T22:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/?p=50035"},"modified":"2024-11-12T17:37:57","modified_gmt":"2024-11-12T22:37:57","slug":"panel-discusses-mental-health-within-hispanic-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/2019\/10\/18\/panel-discusses-mental-health-within-hispanic-community\/","title":{"rendered":"Panel Discusses Mental Health Within Hispanic Community"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/spectrumlocalnews.com\/tx\/austin\/news\/2019\/10\/17\/panel-discusses-mental-health-within-hispanic-community-\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Spectrum News: Panel Discusses Mental Health Within Hispanic Community<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">BY <a href=\"https:\/\/spectrumlocalnews.com\/tx\/austin\/news\/2017\/09\/22\/carlos-garcia\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">CARLOS GARCIA<\/a> AUSTIN<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">PUBLISHED 6:34 AM CT OCT. 17, 2019<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" \/>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">AUSTIN, Texas &#8212; For many, being Hispanic or Latinx today isn\u2019t easy.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Austin Community College panel addresses mental health in the Hispanic community<\/li>\n<li>Hispanics face obstacles created by negative stereotypes<\/li>\n<li>Representation lacking in mental health counseling\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cSometimes people think, \u2018OK, Latins are violent because of the situation in their countries are this or that,\u2019 but people are different. Nobody comes here trying to look for problems. I think most of them try to look for help,\u201d said Austin Community College student Luis Vasquez.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">During a panel at the ACC Highland campus on the occasion of both Hispanic Heritage Month and Mental Health Awareness Week, professionals spoke about the negative perceptions of Hispanic men and women which can lead to internalized trauma. However, getting mental health help is a tall order. And it\u2019s partly related to representation in the counseling field.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI\u2019ve had a lot of clients come to me and tell me, \u2018I was seeing this therapist but it just wasn\u2019t working out because I just felt like I was having to explain so much about my culture,\u2019\u201d said therapist Marissa Rivera, one of the panelists at the event.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For some, getting counseling from someone who looks like them instantly removes barriers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWhen you come by something difficult and somebody tells you, &#8216;Oh, I understand you,&#8217; and they haven\u2019t had the same experience as you, it\u2019s going to be difficult for them to really understand,\u201d said Vasquez.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For mental health professionals, once those barriers are down, it opens the door for major breakthroughs including self-love.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cYou know I think for me, part of expressing my brownness [includes] wearing my hoops, having my big curly hair, speaking Spanglish,\u201d said Rivera.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For many, it\u2019s about feeling seen and heard for the first time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cFirst of all you feel identified. Especially for me, I\u2019m a Latino, and I feel very identified because they know you. They, in a certain way, understand. You probably will say &#8216;OK, they know how I feel because they are from the same heritage and because they\u2019re Latinos too\u2014they know how we\u2019re feeling,&#8217;\u201d said Vasquez.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It may not happen tomorrow, or the next day, but those in the field say, things are changing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI\u2019m really excited about our Millennial generation and our Gen Z generation because I really see them changing that. I think we all have the capacity to change that,\u201d said Rivera.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Spectrum News: Panel Discusses Mental Health Within Hispanic Community BY CARLOS GARCIA AUSTIN PUBLISHED 6:34 AM CT OCT. 17, 2019 AUSTIN, Texas &#8212; For many, being Hispanic or Latinx today isn\u2019t easy. \u201cSometimes people think, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/2019\/10\/18\/panel-discusses-mental-health-within-hispanic-community\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3930,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,12,13,15],"tags":[903,449,2608,3754,3448,1397],"class_list":["post-50035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-acc-in-the-news","category-business-and-community","category-current-students","category-facstaff-news","tag-hispanic","tag-hispanic-heritage-month","tag-mental-health","tag-mental-health-awareness-week","tag-panel-discussion","tag-spectrum-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3930"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50035\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}