The Professional Counselor | Volume 13, Issue 4 419 as envisioned by the Multicultural and Social Justice Counseling Competencies (MSJCC; Ratts et al., 2016). We assert that the evidence-based Cultural Formulation Interview (CFI) is an underutilized intervention tool to support counseling practitioners’ and trainees’ MSJCC responsiveness when working with Afro Latinx immigrants in the United States. In this manuscript, we describe the CFI; highlight its alignment with the MSJCC; and demonstrate how the CFI may be used with Afro Latinx populations, an underserved and minoritized group. Counseling Latinx Populations In the United States, counseling practice with Latinx populations has primarily emphasized the role of cultural values (Ayón et al., 2020; Mancini & Farina, 2021). Cultural values are the customs, beliefs, and guiding principles held in common by a cultural group that often help shape worldview and the perceptions of individuals of that culture (Ratts et al., 2016; Sue et al., 2022). Culture plays an important role in the presentation of illness and the experience of mental disturbance (JonesSmith, 2018). Therefore, it is imperative for counselors to attend to cultural elements throughout the counseling process. This emphasis on the role of cultural values has made significant contributions to the Latinx mental health literature by providing a foundation for counselors and counselors-intraining (CITs). But there continues to be a lack of emphasis placed on interventions that explicitly consider the role of within-group differences among this diverse ethnic population (Adames et al., 2018; Barragán et al., 2020). Scholars and practitioners have relied on cultural values and categorized the discrimination Latinx individuals and communities experience from ethnic-, language-, and immigration-related factors, while glossing over racial stressors (López et al., 2018). In a racially charged environment, like that of the United States, culture is often used as a proxy for race across health settings, including mental health settings. Among this population, this has been done through a reliance on the socialization of Latinx people not to identify themselves racially, and instead, use country of origin or immigrant generation to reflect their experiences (López et al., 2018; Telzer & Vazquez Garcia, 2009). With this focus, racialized experiences of Latinx individuals are lost—including the impact of skin color and other phenotypical characteristics on Latinxs and their mental health. Skin color, for instance, is a critical component of identity within the Latinx community because of its historical roots in African, Indigenous, and European cultures (AraujoDawson, 2015). This history has contributed to a wide range of skin tones within the population, from very light skin with European features to very dark skin with Indigenous or African features (Telzer & Vazquez Garcia, 2009). A preference for Whiteness within the Latinx community manifests itself through various forms of oppressive systems, such as colorism and anti-Blackness, both of which are associated with within-group discrimination and adverse mental health outcomes among Latinx populations (Araujo-Dawson, 2015; Ortiz & Telles, 2012). In addition to the within-group differences that are often overlooked in the Latinx mental health literature, Latinx populations are also impacted by immigration demands. Demands such as personal processes like acculturation and resultant acculturative stress may arise because of the pressures of the host country (Ayón et al., 2020; Driscoll & Torres, 2020). Structural barriers put in place by governments and society at large contribute to the stress experienced by Latinx immigrants. These stressors may have adverse impacts on immigrants’ health and mental health (Ayón et al., 2020). For example, researchers suggest that immigrants are already experiencing day-to-day feelings of hopelessness and intense fear of being surveilled by immigration officials. Anti-immigration policies further exploit these feelings, which might significantly impact immigrants’ long-term mental health (Rhodes et al., 2015; Stacciarini et al., 2015).
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