The Importance of Mental Health in the Latine Community: Honoring Our Roots and Healing Together
Mental health is as crucial as physical and spiritual well-being, yet, in many Latine households, it often goes unspoken, ignored, or stigmatized. Growing up in a Colombian household, I experienced firsthand how mental health was regarded—if it was acknowledged at all. Spending three months of the year in Colombia for over a decade gave me an even deeper understanding of how these beliefs were woven into the fabric of our community.
The message was clear: therapy was for those who were "crazy," and if previous generations could endure hardship without external support, then so could we. There was no room for conversations about our emotions, mental well-being, or how much we carried within us. The strength to persevere was valued above all, even if it meant suffering in silence. As a child, this left me confused. I watched family members struggle with grief, anxiety, alcoholism—quietly, alone—and wondered why we weren’t helping them seek support. Each time I asked, I was met with the same response: “They’re not crazy.”
It was this silence that sparked my passion to study psychology. I knew then that I wanted to break these cycles of pain that existed not just in my own family, but in many Latine families. I wanted to understand our inner worlds and why seeking help was treated as a sign of weakness rather than a pathway to healing.
1. Therapy Is for Everyone, Not Just Those in Crisis: One of the most damaging misconceptions that persists in our community is the belief that therapy is only for those who are in crisis or diagnosed with a mental illness. But the truth is, therapy is for everyone. It’s a place where you can navigate the complexities of life—whether you're dealing with stress, relationship challenges, life transitions, or simply needing a space to process emotions.
Therapy provides a sacred space for reflection, growth, and healing. It is a space where you can explore how your nervous system responds to the world around you, and how the cycles you may have inherited from your family are impacting your present life. You don’t have to be in crisis or have a diagnosis to benefit from therapy. Sometimes, it’s about giving yourself the permission to pause, breathe, and receive the support you need to understand yourself more deeply.
Imagine therapy as a form of emotional care that is just as important as tending to physical or spiritual health. It’s a space where you are heard and where your struggles, no matter how big or small, are acknowledged and held with compassion. Life can be challenging, and we don’t have to carry those challenges alone. Therapy helps you unpack what you’ve been holding onto, offering tools to cope and a space to be fully seen.
2. Seeking Help is Not a Sign of Familial Betrayal or Weakness: In many Latine families, the idea of seeking therapy can feel like a betrayal of family values, as if admitting to needing help reflects poorly on the family as a whole. But seeking help is not a sign of weakness, nor is it a reflection of your family’s shortcomings. Therapy is a profound act of self-love and courage. It is about honoring all parts of yourself—the parts that are strong and the parts that are hurting—and recognizing that both deserve to be cared for.
Our families often teach us that we must "tough it out" or rely solely on ourselves to get through hard times. But carrying this expectation can weigh heavily on us, especially when our emotional pain is dismissed or minimized. It’s important to recognize that seeking therapy doesn’t mean you’re incapable of handling life’s difficulties—it means you’re choosing to heal in a different way, by understanding the deeper layers of your experiences and how they have shaped you. Therapy allows you to reflect on the cycles that no longer serve you and to explore how intergenerational patterns of trauma, grief, and pain might be influencing your present-day relationships and well-being.
3. Navigating the Cultural Barriers to Mental Health Care: For many in the Latine community, there is a deep sense of shame, secrecy, and even fear around vulnerability. We are often taught that showing emotion—especially sadness, anxiety, or fear—is a sign of weakness. This creates an enormous barrier to accessing mental health care because the very idea of asking for help feels like exposing something deeply private, something that we’ve been conditioned to keep hidden.
On top of this, finding a therapist who understands your cultural background can feel like a daunting task. Culturally competent care is crucial because mental health cannot be separated from the cultural context in which we live. Our beliefs, values, and traditions all influence how we perceive mental health and how we approach healing.
At Rincon Curativo, I make it my mission to honor these cultural intricacies. I believe that therapy should reflect and respect your lived experience, your identity, and your cultural roots. It’s about creating a space where you feel seen, where your experiences are validated, and where you can explore healing in a way that aligns with who you are and where you come from.
4. Accessibility and Support at Rincon Curativo: I also recognize that for many, financial barriers can make mental health care feel out of reach. At Rincon Curativo, I emphasize accessibility by keeping sliding scale slots open and prioritizing the Latine community. This is essential because mental health care should never feel like a luxury; it is a right. Everyone deserves access to support, and I want to make sure that no one is left behind because of cost.
I celebrate and deeply admire the individuals, couples, and families who take the courageous step of going against cultural norms to seek therapy. It’s not easy to step outside of what is familiar and comfortable, especially when it comes to breaking generational taboos. But these acts of bravery—choosing to seek help, choosing to heal—are exactly what will lead to the destigmatization of mental health in our community.
I’m constantly inspired by the Latine families who are paving the way for a new understanding of mental health, for their children and for future generations. These are the families who are saying, “We deserve to heal.” And it’s an honor to walk alongside them on this journey.
5. Healing Is a Collective Journey: Mental health is not just an individual pursuit; it’s deeply intertwined with the collective. Our healing ripples out to our families, our communities, and future generations. By breaking cycles of silence and shame, we are not just healing ourselves—we are healing the collective wounds of our ancestors and making space for new possibilities for those who come after us.
It’s important to remember that therapy is not about “fixing” ourselves because we are not broken. It’s about coming into a fuller understanding of who we are, of the patterns and systems we’ve been shaped by, and of the power we have to transform them. Therapy provides a place to pause, to honor the complexity of our emotions, and to rewrite the stories that no longer serve us.
Mental health is an essential part of our well-being, and prioritizing it is an act of love and resistance. By embracing therapy, we are honoring ourselves, our ancestors, and the generations that will come after us. We are saying that our healing matters, that our pain is valid, and that we deserve to be held and supported in our journey.
Let’s continue to break the silence and dismantle the stigma around mental health in the Latine community. Let’s create spaces where vulnerability is celebrated, where seeking help is seen as a sign of strength, and where healing is honored as a powerful, collective act. Together, we can heal the past, transform the present, and shape a future full of compassion, connection, and care.
