ABSTRACT
Psychiatric epidemi ology and psycho lo gical studies indic ate that Mexican Americans in general exper i ence a signi fi c ant amount of mental health prob lems as a result of psycho lo gical stressors (Lopez et al. , 2012; Tran et al. , 2010). Some of the stressors include, but are not limited to, poverty or low socioeco nomic status, immig ra tion status, trauma during migra tion, discrim ina tion, and accul tur a tion (Abreu and Sasaki, 2004). These exper i ences can result in stress leading to inter per sonal confl icts and intraper sonal disorders (Coker et al. , 2009; Gloria and SeguraHerrera, 2004; Santiago-Rivera et al. , 2002). Among the intraper sonal disorders found in the liter at ure are anxiety, adjust ment, and substance depend ence disorders (Pérez and Fortuna, 2005). These stressors and psychi at ric disorders present a clear need for coun sel ing, to alle vi ate psycho lo gical distress and reduce mental illness for Mexican Americans. However, despite the need for mental health services, there is evid ence that Mexican Americans continue to under util ize psycho lo gical services (Abreu and Sasaki, 2004; Atdjian and Vega, 2005; Bender et al. , 2007; Cummings, 2011; Perron et al. (2009); Sullivan et al. , 2007; Vega et al. , 1999). Of those Mexican Americans who util ized services many repor ted that they received less indi vidual therapy and a narrower range of services, even though they presen ted with more severe psychiat ric disorders than their white coun ter parts (Bender et al. , 2007).
