Therapy services and training in Spanish offered by the Centro Latino to the Hispanic community and to colleagues

Centro Latino trains therapists to provide their services to low income communities that only speak Spanish. According to the last census in 2000, California has the fastest growing Hispanic community in the United States. Although the Centro Latino has grown enormously in recent years, therapy services offered to Hispanic communities have been insufficient to meet growing needs.

The Centro Latino works together with several schools in Palo Alto's Ravenswood School District. Several interns trained by the Centro Latino, some of them bilingual, offer their assistance to schools aiming at covering some of these needs. The institution offers limited services for families of the students at the Brief Therapy Center of the Centro Latino on Wednesday afternoons. This clinic is a training place for bilingual colleagues and residents of the US, as well as foreign colleagues, that seek to train themselves in the brief therapy model and techniques. This therapy, created by the founders of the MRI in the 1960s, continues to successfully progress into the 21st century.

Centro Latino's association with these schools provides an excellent opportunity for foreign colleagues seeking training. An alternative option is to work as a volunteer in the schools and participate in the clinic on Wednesday afternoons, meeting with Karin Schlanger, Director of Centro Latino, to discuss the different specific cases of the patients.

The Centro Latino intends to continue growing in this area and seeks to establish further alliances with other professionals or institutions that are able to provide the Centro Latino with financial support. Centro Latino requires a lot of financial aid since most of its work is targeted to serve low income families.

Because we are expanding rapidly in an area that has a huge potential to continue growing and where the need has been clearly established, we are always interested in bilingual interns. If you are interested in problem-solving brief therapy and would like to explore options, please contact us at (650) 321-3325 or email kschlanger@igc.org

In the last two years, thanks to the financial support of a generous local philanthropist, Centro Latino now serves a relatively new high school with special needs, founded by professors of the Stanford University School of Education.

We have also had a long standing relationship with the East Palo Alto Charter School, an Aspire school in the community. This incredible program is extending their services to older students and is in the process of establishing a High School, under the name of Phoenix Academy. The Latino Center is offering limited services at that school and we look forward to expanding our relationship with that school.

The school offers assistance particular to the Spanish speaking community (75% of the students are Spanish speakers with parents who do not speak English at home), thanks to the perseverance and interest of Linda Darling Hammod, a professional with vast experience in the education field. Such families have low incomes and many of the students represent the first generation to seek a college education for a better future.

Many of the students are adversely affected by such issues as a high crime rate and gang participation, leading to a high rate of violence. Use of drugs and pregnancies at an early age is also part of this sad reality.

Attending a small school with more participation from the teachers in the life of the students, and which provides the students moral and psychological support, helps them to get out of the vicious circle in which their parents are also trapped.

Project for translating the MRI video collection to Spanish

The Centro Latino in the process of translating and adding subtitles to their extensive video collection by Dr. Paul Watzlawick, John Weakland, and Richard Fisch. This is a long term project. Any questions or suggestions are welcomed by this institution.