Luchando Junt@s Por Una Familia Unida (Fighting Together for a United Family): Rebuilding the Cohesive Self of Immigrant Parents and Community Healing after a Family Separation in the United States – A Self Psychology Perspective

Abstract The Zero Tolerance policy implemented by the Trump administration resulted in the separation of thousands of Central American families seeking asylum at the U.S. Southern border. This policy has had a devastating impact on the mental health of parents and their children. While most of the literature on forced immigration family separation, and reunification focuses on children’s traumatic responses, it is essential to expand the literature to include the impact on parents, who can help mitigate the negative consequences of adverse events and traumatic stress on their children. When parents are not provided with adequate culturally sensitive healing interventions, their distress, and emotional needs may affect their ability to effectively support their children. Using a self psychology lens, this theoretical article sheds light on the psychological experiences of Central American parents who endured forced family separation. It also contributes knowledge to self psychology theory and its integration into group work with Central Americans. This article draws from the literature, my clinical experience with immigrants and refugees, and my work with Central American asylum-seeking families impacted by the “zero tolerance” immigration policy to argue that self psychology provides a lens for understanding the impact of the government’s empathic failure on parents upon entering the United States that led to a blow to parents’ cohesive self. Parents’ cohesive self can be restored with sufficient collective twinship , mirroring , and idealizing experiences, which in self-psychology are paramount psychological needs to be met for building and maintaining a strong self.