Bilingual/Multicultural Counseling

What is Multicultural Counseling?

Multicultural counseling is a therapeutic approach that honors and addresses the many facets of cultural identity, including race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, immigration status, generational differences, and socioeconomic class. At our bilingual counseling center, we understand that effective therapy must be culturally responsive and affirming.

A culturally competent counselor brings both training and lived experience to work effectively with clients from diverse backgrounds. Our bilingual counseling services are designed to meet you where you are, whether that means conducting sessions in Spanish, understanding cultural nuances, or navigating the unique challenges of multicultural identity.

Why Multicultural Counseling Matters

Historically, Western psychology primarily served a narrow demographic—those who could afford private pay services and felt comfortable seeking mental health support. Today, counseling has become more accessible and accepted across diverse communities, creating an increased need for culturally competent care.

At Shift Counseling, PC, we're proud to offer culturally affirming services that recognize the importance of quality mental health treatment for everyone. Our approach to Hispanic mental health counseling and services for other cultural communities stems from understanding that true healing happens when clients feel seen, understood, and respected in their entirety.

Our Culturally Responsive Approach

Our counselors take time to listen, assess, and truly understand each client's worldview. This deep understanding of cultural identity allows our multicultural counselors to meet the diverse needs of our community effectively. Whether you're working with a Spanish speaking therapist or a counselor from your cultural background, we ensure culturally appropriate care.

Key principles guide our work:

• Avoiding assumptions based on cultural background

• Recognizing that no culture is monolithic

• Remaining open-minded to individual experiences within cultural groups

• Seeing each person as a unique individual beyond cultural stereotypes

Diverse Communities We Serve

As an insurance-based practice, Shift Counseling, PC serves a broad spectrum of the population, including many who historically faced barriers to mental health care. We welcome clients across all age groups, genders, races, religions, sexual orientations, classes, and immigration statuses.

Our client community includes professionals from various fields: construction workers, corporate executives, small business owners, transportation professionals, tradespeople, teachers, healthcare workers, administrative professionals, and stay-at-home parents.

We've intentionally located our bilingual counseling center in a culturally diverse area, allowing us to serve individuals from many different backgrounds. When hiring, we prioritize counselors passionate about providing quality services and demonstrating cultural competence. Our team includes Spanish speaking counselors specifically trained in Latinx therapy approaches, and we strive to offer inclusive, affirming services to all.

Evidence-Based Multicultural Treatment

At Shift Counseling, PC, we ground our work in proven, evidence-based interventions including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Mindfulness, and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy (EMDR). These methods have been studied extensively and show consistent positive outcomes.

Effective multicultural counseling happens when diverse clinicians trained in evidence-based interventions can adapt these frameworks to make cultural sense for their clients. Our bilingual counseling services exemplify this approach, ensuring interventions resonate with clients' cultural values and experiences.

The Power of Bilingual Counseling Services

Our bilingual counseling services offer a unique therapeutic advantage that goes far beyond simple translation. When clients can express themselves in their native language, they access deeper emotional layers and more authentic memories that might remain hidden when communicating in a second language. Research consistently shows that people process emotions, trauma, and childhood experiences more completely in their first language. Our Spanish speaking therapists understand that language carries culture, emotion, and identity—elements that are crucial for effective therapy. Whether you're more comfortable discussing complex family dynamics in Spanish, exploring cultural conflicts, or simply need the comfort of being understood in your mother tongue, our bilingual counseling center provides a safe space where language becomes a bridge to healing rather than a barrier. This approach is particularly powerful for clients dealing with intergenerational trauma, cultural identity struggles, or the unique challenges faced by immigrants and first-generation Americans who navigate multiple linguistic and cultural worlds daily.

Our Spanish Speaking Therapists, Jazmin, Vivian, and Noel are accepting new clients. You can view their pages to learn more about each of them.

Supporting First Generation Americans

We frequently work with first-generation Americans across all cultural backgrounds. These individuals often navigate two worlds that can conflict with each other, leading to feelings of being lost or caught between identities. The intersection of religion, cultural identity, generational differences, and gender can feel overwhelming.

Many children of immigrants carry the unique burden of standing out in their environment. They may look different, hold different beliefs or worldviews, or possess different talents. This position holds both power and vulnerability, often creating a sense of going it alone.

Cycle Breakers in Multicultural Communities

We help clients identify what's within their control and what isn't. Many communities carry histories of intergenerational trauma, and younger generations often recognize these patterns in ways previous generations couldn't. Growing up in different environments than their ancestors, first-generation Americans develop perspectives that allow them to question unhealthy relationship patterns and seek healthier connections.

Today's younger generations are "cycle breakers." While this role can be exciting and freeing, it also carries immense pressure. The weight of changing things for the better can feel overwhelming, as if reforming entire communities rests on individual shoulders. Many cycle breakers feel like outsiders among community members who may not value the changes they seek.

Honoring Your Cultural Heritage

Beyond identifying needed changes, we believe it's crucial to recognize the positive aspects of your culture—what to honor, continue, and celebrate, alongside what you might choose to leave behind. Every culture offers valuable lessons, values, rituals, and wisdom. The goal is living your culture while having the freedom to choose which aspects to carry forward.

Finding balance and practicing self-care amid these challenges can be difficult. Individuals from diverse backgrounds may feel overwhelmed by pressure, fearing failure if they can't "fix" everything, or facing rejection from their community when they work toward change.

The Journey of Progress

Working with a multicultural counselor often involves stages of progress: self-awareness, self-acceptance, and finally, self-compassion. Learning self-compassion means no longer fighting a war on two fronts—battling yourself and the outside world simultaneously is nearly impossible and often leads to anxiety, depression, and sometimes collapse.

When you develop compassion for yourself and learn to choose your battles wisely, everything becomes manageable. This self-compassion, combined with improved coping skills from evidence-based counseling techniques, creates profound relief. You become ready to thrive in the face of challenges, experiencing improved motivation, decreased powerlessness, reduced depression and anxiety symptoms, and a kinder inner world.

Spotlight: Noel Cordova, LCPC, CADC on Hispanic Mental Health Counseling

"Like all staff at Shift Counseling, PC, I enjoy working with people from many different backgrounds. As a Spanish speaking therapist, I specialize in working with the Hispanic/Latino/x population and male clients. Many of my clients express how important it is to find someone they can connect with culturally—someone who understands where they're coming from. In our culture, family bonds are central, even when relationships are complicated."

Understanding Complex Family Dynamics

In Hispanic/Latino/x households, discipline can be harsh yet done with love. Community members often fear that discussing their experiences could lead to consequences from those who don't understand our culture. There's concern that if people focus on the wrong aspects of our stories, we won't receive the help we need.

For Latinx therapy to be effective, clients need Spanish speaking counselors who understand the context of family dynamics in our culture. This understanding creates safety and openness.

As a multicultural counselor, I recommend interventions that make sense within our cultural family dynamics. Cutting people out of our lives—especially older family members—doesn't always work for us, even when they're toxic. I help people learn to set protective boundaries without completely severing family connections.

Bilingual Counseling Across the Lifespan

Working with adolescents, young adults, and mature adults (ages 13-65), I see cultural issues impact people throughout their lives. I work with individuals of different immigration statuses, understanding that even members of the same cultural group can have vastly different experiences.

Many of my clients suffer from complex trauma. As a Spanish speaking counselor who is also EMDR-trained, I'm uniquely positioned to help Hispanic/Latino/x clients heal from trauma through culturally responsive bilingual counseling services.

Translating forms into Spanish and conducting sessions in Spanish proves invaluable for clients who grew up with English as their second language. Speaking about childhood experiences in one's primary language makes accessing authentic memories and emotions easier. Emotional issues are complex, and understanding between clinician and client improves when clients can express themselves in their native language. Clients often report feeling affirmed by expressing themselves in their native language with someone who understands their culture.

Learning Vulnerability Within Cultural Context

Being vulnerable challenges people who have always been strong, who learned to persevere through adversity, and who may never have had opportunities to discuss their experiences. Many believe their strength comes from continuing regardless of circumstances, fearing what might happen if they let go and admit how heavy their burdens are.

The hardest part for many clients is admitting—to themselves and others—that their feelings matter. Once they begin opening up about struggles and understand that someone can understand, care, and offer help, it becomes clear they possess significant resilience and strengths for their recovery. Realizing they don't have to be strong constantly and that they're allowed to have feelings often represents the biggest treatment challenge.

In our culture, many people define their worth by their ability to work hard, provide, and keep going. Learning to admit vulnerability wasn't taught to us. However, validation's power goes far here. Once clients move past their protective exterior, I help them admit they have needs too and learn to balance utilizing their strengths with improved self-care.

Expected Outcomes of Culturally Competent Multicultural Counseling

Struggles with cultural identity often contribute to mental health symptoms like depression and anxiety. When clients work with counselors who either share their background or affirm their identity, it becomes safe to address cultural issues in therapy.

As cultural concerns are validated and effective treatment strategies are implemented, clients typically experience relief and reduction in their most distressing symptoms. Our bilingual counseling services and culturally responsive approach create pathways to healing that honor both individual needs and cultural values.