Karla Cornejo Villavicencio, a graduate student in American Studies at Yale University, published an astonishing essay in the New York Times about the president’s decision to end DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals or “Dreamers” program.
Villavicencio, a Dreamer herself, illustrates the mental and emotional effects of Trump’s decision on an already “deeply stressed community” of 800,000. She tells the stories of a few of the people she has interviewed for her dissertation: individuals already living in a heightened state of fear and anxiety that has now been purposefully intensified by the action of the Trump administration. She magnifies her own experience:
My parents have lived in this country for 30 years, and they have seen their share of ghosts. I recently learned that my father hid his father’s death from me for three years because he did not want it to affect my mental health. Unable to travel, he could not bury him. I made my way through Harvard and Yale as an undocumented student. But even safe in my Ivy League college town, I have nightmares — of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, of swastikas. When I travel the country meeting undocumented immigrants for my dissertation, I see my father’s face in theirs and I know this astigmatism will always be with me. Anytime my parents take too long to text me back or when they call me at an unusual time, I panic. When I hear them say, “Just reminding you to wear sunscreen today!” I want to laugh in relief.
The essay is in important read for those of us involved in mental health. Villavicencio asks us consider what we can do when the administration works aggressively against a population. She specifically calls on us, the psychotherapeutic community:
Licensed therapists, psychologists and psychiatrists can offer care for reduced fees to low-income clients, and clinics can hire more bilingual practitioners.
Open Path Psychotherapy Collective currently has 165 Spanish-speaking therapists who are ready to see Dreamers in-person or remotely online. If you know of a Dreamer in need, or if you want to help us pass the word on, here’s the link to our Spanish-speaking clinicians who offer reduced-fee rates. You can also use our search feature to find therapists by language.
We are always looking for new therapists to join our cause. If you are a therapist fluent in a language other than English and willing to see clients at a reduced rate, please consider signing up and offering your service in support of Dreamers now.
Open Path is also seeking bilingual (English/Spanish) candidates for our Membership Manager & Registrar position. Learn more about the position and how to apply here. Applications due by September 18, 2017.
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Read “The Psychic Toll of Trump’s DACA Decision” by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio in the New York Times
Find out more about Dreamers — where they are from and where they live. (via Quartz)
A financial guide for Dreamers (via The Simple Dollar)
Photograph of a protestor at DACA Rally in San Francisco, September 2017 by Pax Amhisa Gethen. Used under a CC 4.0 license.
