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Essay / The Reflection of Depression: Using Adolescent Depression
When I came out, I was in America, but inside my house, it was Mexico. My father was the head of the house. This was not the case for some of my American friends” (Sue & Sue, 2008, p. 375). Reading this quote reminded me of the client because she was talking about her difficulties adjusting and the fact that her father was the head of the household. The manual included a chapter on counseling Hispanics and Latinos. Sue and Sue discussed the importance of family value within the Hispanic population. Learning this made me understand why it was so important for the client to build a relationship with her mother and father that she had not seen in almost fourteen years. Sue and Sue explained that “the stress found in adult Mexican immigrants results in depressive symptoms…cultural conflicts all function as stressors for recent immigrants” (Sue and Sue, 2008, p. 386). Therefore, immigration stress and cultural conflicts may also contribute to the client's depressive symptoms. However, as I learned in the diversity course, it is important to assess the importance clients place on their culture and determine whether depression is the result of cultural conflicts rather than one issue.