Why Can’t I Be Latina, Female, and Professional? Clinical Implications of Social Discourses that Render Class Invisible

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article will first present and then apply an Integrated Sociopolitical and Psychological Analysis Model, ISPA, to examine the complexity of social class and social class— consciousness in an intra-ethnic clinical relationship and treatment process. The analysis will show how the internalization of dominant and subjugated sociopolitical discourses that conflate social class, race, ethnicity and culture, compounded the client’s existing psychological conflict and associated mental health symptoms. It will then discuss why the Integrated Sociopolitical and Psychological Analysis Model is a needed approach in direct clinical practice.