Cultural humility is a concept which refers to a lifelong process and commitment to self-reflection and self-critique which takes into account challenges both individuals and institutions to address inequalities. One who practices cultural humility remains humble about their own lack of knowledge about another’s culture and continuously and critically evaluates their own cultural biases. A culturally humble therapist will allow their client to be the expert of their own culture and their own story. However, they will seek to learn about the other’s culture, do personal research, and learn more. The therapist will ask respectful questions, honor what is important to the child and family, and validate cultural values and goals expressed by the client. Integrating trauma-informed care and cultural humility will help the child and family process trauma and build resilience, which are crucial steps in working with this population.
While doing so, play therapists will incorporate therapeutic powers of play through self-expression and accessing the unconscious, increasing personal strength from building resiliency, teaching self-regulation strategies, reinforcing self-esteem-building, and fostering emotional wellness through catharsis, stress-inoculation, and stress management medium (i.e., toys, art supplies) to work through their presenting issues, in this case, extensive trauma, and they speak the language of the child: play. Through play therapy, children with unspeakable traumas may heal without saying a word.
Play therapists wear many hats. Given the poverty and basic-needs challenges faced by this population pre-migration,
these children
psychoeducation about topics such as time management, money budgeting, keeping a journal to modulate affect and cope with everyday stressors, and parenting skills to embark upon their new life successfully. If warranted, imparting information about food pantries, rental assistance programs, referrals to law projects in the community, information about charity care programs or similar assistance would also be helpful, and including other professionals in the family’s resource network may be necessary to disseminate this information.
Play therapists, could also provide advocacy. Advocacy work can be as simple as referring a client to a community law project or making a collateral call to a school for a child client. This work requires major problem-solving efforts and could be life changing to a client. Staying children and families as policy changes have profound effects on their lives. For example, policy changes, such as attempts to rescind the Deferral Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) have profound impacts on immigrant families and their children, including children in mixed-status families.
Building Resilience Traumatic experiences may lead to posttraumatic growth or resilience. Resilience may be an inherent personality characteristic, or it may be
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fostered and cultivated. In this population, factors that promote resilience support is likely the strongest form of support in this population, given the value of of familismo, or loyalty and commitment to one’s family. Many undocumented immigrants travel with their families to the US while others make the journey to create a better life for their family who remains in their home country. Whether family members are physically with them or not, family remains of utmost importance. Hence, when an individual travels alone, the alienation may feel even greater; therefore, creating social networks in the host society is even more imperative. It cannot be underscored enough that fostering resilience or augmenting existing resilience via growing social support, or otherwise, would be a fruitful endeavor for this population.
Conclusion In summary, unauthorized immigrants who cross the US-Mexico border are a vulnerable population with extensive trauma incurred pre-migration, during migration, and post-migration. Researchers have consistently shown that this population has been underserved in mental health settings. One solution to address fragmentation of services amidst diverse immigrant needs is to provide mental health treatment from a trauma-informed and cultural humble perspective to address the trauma incurred and to help the undocumented immigrant with adjustment to the host society, to foster resilience, to buffer the child or family from future stressors, and to maintain overall mental health wellness. Play therapists can help children and their families turn unspeakable traumas into resiliency and growth in their new lives.
References Androff, D. K., & Tavassoli, K. Y. (2012). Deaths in the dessert: The human rights crisis on the U.S.- Mexico border. Social Work, 57
women’s descriptions of migration stressors and sources of strength. Health Care and Women International, 37
Betancourt, T. S., Newnham, E. A., Birman, D., Lee, R., Ellis, B. H., & Layne, service utilization across clinical samples of refugee, immigrant, and U.S.-origin children. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 30
immigrants from Mexico: Experiences of practitioners in New Mexico and Texas. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 49
Bialik, K. (2019). Border apprehensions increased in 2018 - especially for migrant families. Pew Research Center.
https://www.pewresearch.
of detention on U.S. migrant children and families. American Journal
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