Working with Latino populations: Applying culture to promote change

The purpose of this paper is to apply cultural values theory (Schwartz, 2006) and a strengths-based approach (Bowman, 2006) to highlight the strengths of various Latinx cultural values of faith and religion, familismo, machismo, cabellerismo, and independence, how they influence the therapeutic process, and promote change for the client. Therapists can focus on the strengths cultural values bring to help promote health and adaptive behaviors. As they do so, therapists can become more sensitive in providing care centered around the already existing culture of the client instead of attempting to change client culture and become more apt in providing services that result in utilizing values and beliefs of Latinx families.