How Latines Seek Relational Mental Health Services: A Constructivist Grounded Theory

Rates of mental health service seeking amongst Hispanic/Latine populations are extremely low when compared to White identified populations. There are well documented, complex structural barriers to mental health seeking for this population such as cost, lack of Spanish speaking services, citizenship status, and many others. There are also cultural elements that are possible barriers for this community. However, there is very little data on how this population seeks relational therapy, and what this population finds helpful in seeking therapy. My aim for this study is to address the disparity in mental healthcare in Hispanic/Latine populations by creating a theory as to how this population comes to seek professional family or couple therapy services and how they overcome barriers to seeking and receiving therapy. I used Constructivist Grounded Theory to understand the process of how Latine families or couples sought relationally focused therapy. Through analysis of qualitative interviews with sixteen participants, my research team and I developed a grounded theory that illustrates the process of how Latines initiate and overcome the barriers to engagement to relational therapeutic care. In this theory, three categories were developed, Help Seeking, Personal Factors for Overcoming, and Therapist Factors for Overcoming. For Latine couples and families, overcoming the barriers to receiving care was not a one-time occurrence, but was something they had to consistently overcome to initiate, engage, and persist in therapeutic services. Personal factors included receiving a therapy referral, having higher levels of education/acculturation, being able to use resources, and tolerating discomfort. Therapist factors included the therapeutic alliance, therapist cultural humility and training, and therapy effectiveness. Both the individual person and the therapist were imperative in this process, and if both were able to meet the factors for overcoming, then couples and families could successfully initiate, engage, and complete therapy. The findings from this research provided important first steps in addressing a gap in the literature and help mental health service providers improve their practices to better meet the needs of Latine individuals, couples, and families.