Sometimes We Need to Say It in Our Own Language: The Power of Spanish-Language Support Groups

By Nallely (Nelly) Willis, Vice President of Programs

There are some things we can translate word for word.

And there are things we need to feel, explain, and process in the language that feels most like home.

When we are overwhelmed, grieving, afraid, exhausted, or going through a major life transition, finding the right words can already be difficult. Having to translate those feelings—or explain the cultural context behind them—can add another layer.

This is one reason Spanish-language peer support spaces matter.

There Is Strength in Community

Spanish-language support is about more than language access. It is also about creating spaces where language, culture, identity, traditions, and lived experiences can be part of the conversation rather than something someone has to leave outside the room.

At GPS Group Peer Support, our Spanish-language groups create trauma-informed opportunities for people to connect, listen, reflect, and share experiences in community.

We don’t have to have all the answers for one another. Sometimes we can simply make room for the conversation. Because healing and hope don’t always begin with someone telling us what to do.

Sometimes they begin when we sit together. Someone speaks.Someone listens. Someone recognizes themselves in another person’s story.

“A mí también.”

And suddenly, what we were carrying alone is being held in community.

This is why GPS is excited to introduce Raíces, Fortaleza y Comunidad: GPS For Hispanic and Latino Communities, a new four-session curriculum created to support meaningful connection, reflection, and peer support within diverse Hispanic and Latino communities. Developed as part of the MASStrong initiative in partnership with Cruzando Puentes, the curriculum was shaped with an understanding that there is no single Hispanic or Latino experience. 

Making Space for the Realities We Carry

The curriculum creates opportunities to name experiences that can be difficult to talk about elsewhere, from living in survival mode and feeling disconnected from parts of ourselves to carrying the pressures of family responsibility, financial stress, discrimination, immigration-related fears, grief, caregiving, and uncertainty.

But these sessions are not defined only by struggle.

Across four sessions, participants are invited to explore survival, identity, strength, peace, and connection, while recognizing the wisdom and resilience that already exist within themselves and their communities.

Bringing GPS Into Your Community

The curriculum provides facilitators with four complete GPS support group sessions that can be used to create culturally responsive peer support spaces for Hispanic and Latino communities. Using the structured, trauma-informed GPS model, facilitators create a space where participants can share without judgment or advice, listen deeply to one another, and experience the power of being heard. 

We hope this curriculum helps create more spaces where Hispanic and Latino community members can bring their full experiences, recognize their strengths, feel heard, and know they do not have to carry everything alone.

For organizations participating in MASStrong, the curriculum is available 100% free. Contact us at info@grouppeersupport.org to learn more. 

Bring MASStrong to Your Workplace

GPS’s MASStrong program offers free GPS trainings, support groups, curriculums, and toolkits for Massachusetts medical, behavioral health, and community care workers and organizations. Eligible organizations can also apply for GPS partnership support and grants up to $10,000.