Psychotherapy with Deaf Clients from Diverse Groups

10 Asian American and Deaf

210 10 Asian American and Deaf CHERYL L. WU AND NANCY C. GRANT Being deaf or hard of hearing and ethnically Asian in the United States offers unique challenges to individuals and their families. Mentally healthy Asian American deaf individuals develop integrated ethnic/cultural identities. They understand the ways in which they are shaped by their Asian ethnicity, Americanness, and deaf experiences; and they integrate these influences into their own healthy individual identity. They are able to code-switch: to adapt communication and behavior appropriately when in different environments (Atkinson, Morten, & Sue, 1983; Phinney et al., 1990; Sue & Sue, 2008; Tajfel, 1981). In effect, they are multiculturally competent in their Asian, American, and deaf groups. They do not have to choose one part of their identity over another, to be deaf [or Asian, or American] first. To deny any part of their identity would be to deny a part of themselves. Individuals cannot simply be “educated” into changing their cultural identity in order to become more American, more Asian, more Deaf. Becoming culturally competent is not a matter of just gaining cultural information or knowledge. Rather, it is a continual process of evolving cultural identity: developing awareness of self, other(s), and environments; developing the knowledge to understand this awareness; learning/ practicing skills; and finding resources to negotiate differences. Cultural competence includes experiences in which one encounters, learns, and practices developing awareness , knowledge, and skills. In the context of cross-cultural work in deaf communities, professionals have access to multicultural training; yet Asian American deaf/hard of hearing individuals and their families are not likely to have access to such support systems. Our work in a nonprofit, multiservice agency for multicultural deaf and hard of hearing people and their families in the San Francisco Bay Area informs our perspectives . About 95% of our clients were people of color or had disabilities, and about 50% recent immigrants. Most of our youth clients attended special day classes in the public schools; some attended the northern California School for the Deaf. We respect the collectivist spirit and generosity of those who reviewed and offered guidance on our original paper, and offer our thanks to these teachers and colleagues: Sam Chan, Ph.D., California School of Professional Psychology; Deborah Chen, Ph.D., California State University at Northridge; Li-Rong Lilly Cheng, Ph.D., San Diego State University; Nancy Lim-Yee, Chinatown Child Development Center; and Stanley Sue, Ph.D., University of California at Davis and National Research Center on Asian American Mental Health. Asian American and Deaf 211 Demographics According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS) demographic and housing estimates (2005–2007), 4.9% of the U.S. population is Asian alone or Asian in combination with one or more other race origins, which makes this group the nation’s second fastest growing minority population. Based on the Census Bureau’s 2006 ACS, 3,565,458 U.S. residents identified themselves as Chinese, of whom 63% (over 21 million) are immigrants. These data show that native-born U.S. citizens and foreign-born U.S. citizens and noncitizens make the Chinese American community in the following proportions: 37% are native-born U.S. citizens, 37% percent are naturalized U.S. citizens, and 26% are not U.S. citizens. The American deaf student population is becoming more racially and ethnically diverse. The most recent national study of K-12 programs (Gallaudet Research Institute, December 2008) shows that 47.4% of students are white. Thus, there is a “minority majority” of 52.6% students of color, of whom 4.2% are “Asian.” Of these, 1.3% identify an Asian language as the primary home language.1 Half of all Asian and Pacific Islander students come from homes where a primary language other than English is spoken (Chan, 1997). After noting the diversity and complexity of the “Asian/Pacific Island” category, Lane, Hoffmeister, and Bahan (1996) note: “Many Deaf immigrants arriving on U.S. shores find that their signed language is utterly unknown in the U.S. deaf-world. Still others arrive without any signed language” (p. 166). In a National Institutes for Disability Rehabilitation and Research study, Ing and Tewey (1994) show 3.7% of hearing impaired youth as Asian/Pacific. Asian and Pacific Islander language students are underrepresented in special education, bilingual education, and other programs (Trueba, Cheng, & Ima, 1993). However, cultural and political factors confound this percentage since many Asian Americans would likely decline to identify their own or a family member...