“I Am Not Who I Thought I Was”: Use of Grief Work to Address Disrupted Identity Among Hispanic Adolescent Immigrants

Abstract

Immigration from Latin America to the United States is often an escape from difficult circumstances, but with this gain comes a loss of identity. This can be a special burden for adolescents, who are thrown into a new culture and environment while in the process of identity formation. Using case studies from my work as a psychotherapist in a community mental health clinic, I will describe this special turmoil and a way in which Latino immigrant teenagers can be helped to resolve it. Psychodynamic grief work aimed at helping them mourn the loss of identities and valued capacities through emigration can reduce self-destructive enactments and support them in the adolescent task of forming an identity.