ABSTRACT
According to the U.S. Census Bureau (2003), the Latino population represents 42.7 million of the total population. Most recent estimates by the Pew Hispanic Center (2006) indicate that 44.7 million of the 300 million people living in the United States of America are of Hispanic origin. Close to 40% of the Latino population are largely Spanish speakers (Pew Hispanic Center/Kaiser Family Foundation, 2002). Another number of bilingual Hispanics prefer to address emotional and family issues in the Spanish language. There is a plethora of literature regarding counseling English-speaking Latinos and Latinas, but information about working with Spanish-speaking Hispanic clients is rare (Acosta, Evans, Hurwicz, & Yamamoto, 1987; Comas-Diaz, 1997; Delgado-Romero, 2001; La Roche, 2002; Lopez, 1997; Ruiz & Padilla, 1977; Torres-Rivera, Wilbur, Phan, Maddux, & Roberts-Wilbur, 2004). Subsequently there is a need not just for competent multicultural clinicians but also for multilingual service providers in all areas of life, including physical and mental health.
