418 The Professional Counselor™ Volume 13, Issue 4, Pages 418–431 http://tpcjournal.nbcc.org © 2024 NBCC, Inc. and Affiliates doi: 10.15241/kad.13.4.418 Kirsis Allennys Dipre, Diana Gallardo, Susan F. Branco, Ladylanis Grullon Cepeda Using the Cultural Formulation Interview With Afro Latinx Immigrants in Counseling: A Practical Application Afro Latinx immigrants are an underserved population in the United States and within counseling specifically. The counseling profession has been slow to address the unique needs of this population despite the increased visibility of this group in recent years. Consistent with the codes of ethics from the American Counseling Association and the National Board for Certified Counselors and the Multicultural and Social Justice Counseling Competencies (MSJCC), counselors must continue to expand their repertoire and use empirically supported tools to address these mandates and increase cultural responsiveness in clinical practice. Despite its alignment with the MSJCC, the counseling literature demonstrates that the Cultural Formulation Interview is an underutilized, empirically supported tool. The authors describe how counselors may use the Cultural Formulation Interview in their clinical practice with Afro Latinx immigrants while operating from a multicultural and social justice–oriented framework. Keywords: Afro Latinx, immigrants, clinical practice, Cultural Formulation Interview, MSJCC According to data from the 2020 Census, there are about 62.1 million Hispanics in the United States (U.S. Census Bureau, 2021). Of those, about 6 million identify as Afro-Latinos, accounting for about 2% of all adults and about 12% of all Latinx adults in the country (Gonzales-Barrera, 2022). Considering the Afro Latinx population is increasingly gaining visibility in the United States, there is a growing need for counselors to become well-versed in working with this population. Afro Latinxs have been found to be impacted by multiple systems of oppression because of their intersecting identities (Araujo-Dawson & Quiros, 2014; Hatzenbuehler et al., 2017; Lipscomb & Stevenson, 2022), which can have a detrimental impact on their sense of identity, mental health, and overall functioning as they cope with multiple demands not often acknowledged in the counseling literature (Adames et al., 2016; Newby & Dowling, 2007). The lack of recognition of the compounded impact of being a Black Latinx person in a racialized country, where Black and Latinx communities continue to be perceived as homogeneous groups and subjected to racism and xenophobia, contributes to these difficulties. When immigration status is considered in addition to these highly stigmatized identities, well-being can be drastically impacted as Afro Latinx immigrants are left to negotiate group membership and boundaries within communities that often reject them based on their intersectional identities (Newby & Dowling, 2007). Current paradigms of intervention for working with multiply marginalized populations within the Latinx pan-ethnic label remain unidimensional, limiting both counselors’ understanding of clients and their ability to help clients understand their unique experiences and how these impact their wellbeing (Adames et al., 2016; López et al., 2018). When working with this population, it is imperative for counselors to pay close attention to the intersection of identities, oppression, and mental health; embrace a socioecological perspective; and work to balance individual counseling with social justice, Kirsis Allennys Dipre, PhD, NCC, is a core faculty member at The Family Institute at Northwestern University. Diana Gallardo, PhD, NCC, is an assistant professor at Northeastern Illinois University. Susan F. Branco, PhD, LPC, LCPC, is an associate professor at Palo Alto University. Ladylanis Grullon Cepeda, MA, LPC-A, is a doctoral student at Walden University. Correspondence may be addressed to Kirsis A. Dipre, 618 Library Place, Evanston, IL 60201, kdipre@family-institute.org.
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