Why African Immigrants and Refugees Struggle to Access Mental Health Care in Oregon — And What We're Doing About It

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If you've ever sat across from a Somali mother who hasn't slept in months, a Congolese father who can't explain why he feels numb, or an Ethiopian young adult who is told by their family that therapy is "for crazy people" — you understand why culturally responsive mental health care is not a luxury. It is a necessity.

At Healing Power Therapy, LLC, we were founded on one core belief: healing is possible for everyone, regardless of where you were born, what language you speak, or what you've survived to get here.

The Gap Nobody Is Talking About

Oregon is home to one of the most diverse African immigrant and refugee communities in the Pacific Northwest. Somali families have rebuilt their lives in East Portland. Ethiopian and Eritrean professionals are raising their children in Hillsboro and Beaverton. Congolese and Rwandan refugees are building new futures in Gresham and Troutdale.

And yet, when these community members face depression, anxiety, trauma, or substance use challenges, they encounter a mental health system that was largely not built for them.

The barriers are real:

• Language barriers — Trying to describe grief, trauma, or anxiety in a second language is nearly impossible. Clinical nuance gets lost. Healing gets delayed.
• Cultural stigma — In many East African and Muslim communities, seeking mental health care carries shame. Symptoms are often framed as spiritual weakness or personal failure rather than medical conditions.
• Provider mismatch — Most therapists, however skilled, lack the cultural context to understand the experience of forced displacement, intergenerational trauma, religious identity, or the psychological weight of immigration.
• System distrust — Many refugees have experienced government systems that harmed them. Walking into a clinic — completing paperwork, talking to strangers about private pain — can feel dangerous.
• Insurance confusion — Many community members don't know their insurance covers mental health services, or they don't know how to navigate the referral process.

These barriers compound one another. The result: untreated trauma, broken families, isolation, and suffering that could have been addressed years earlier.

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What Culturally Responsive Care Actually Looks Like

Culturally responsive therapy isn't just about speaking someone's language — though that matters enormously. It's about understanding the whole person in the context of their culture, history, and community.

At Healing Power Therapy, we approach every client through a lens that honors:

Language as medicine. When a Somali client can describe their quruurux la'aanta (loss of beauty in life) or a Swahili-speaking client can name their huzuni (deep sorrow) without translating it first — something shifts. The therapeutic relationship deepens instantly. Healing accelerates.

Family and community as context. Western mental health models often focus on the individual. But for many African and Muslim clients, identity is deeply communal. Decisions are made collectively. Healing is not just personal — it is relational. Our approach incorporates family systems thinking and respects collectivist cultural values.

Faith as a resource, not a barrier. For many Muslim clients, their faith is their greatest source of strength and resilience. We don't treat spirituality as something separate from mental health — we integrate it as a genuine therapeutic resource.

Trauma through a refugee lens. Refugee trauma is not the same as other trauma. It involves multiple and repeated losses — of homeland, of community, of identity, of safety — often occurring across years or even decades. Our trauma-informed approach is calibrated to the specific experience of forced displacement, not just clinical trauma theory.

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Who We Serve

Healing Power Therapy is a state-certified outpatient behavioral health clinic (Oregon Behavioral Health Division Certificate of Approval #001906) located in Portland, Oregon.

We serve children, adolescents, and adults across the Portland metropolitan area, including East Portland, Gresham, Hillsboro, Beaverton, and surrounding communities. Telehealth services extend our reach throughout Oregon.

We provide services in:

• 🇸🇴 Somali
• 🇰🇪 Swahili
• 🇪🇹 Amharic
• 🇸🇦 Arabic
• 🇺🇸 English

Our clinical services include:

• Individual therapy for depression, anxiety, trauma, and life transitions
• Family therapy and parenting support
• Co-occurring mental health and substance use disorder treatment
• Trauma-informed care using evidence-based approaches
• Psychoeducation and coping skills development
• Crisis intervention (within scope)

We accept a wide range of insurance plans including Moda Health, Aetna, Cigna/Evernorth, UnitedHealthcare, UMR, BCBS/Regence, and Triwest/Tricare, with additional insurance credentialing in progress including Oregon Health Plan.

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A Message to the Community

Adiga oo ah qof ka yimid Soomaaliya, waxaan garanayaa in aad xustid maalin aad ku luntay wax ka badan gurigaaga. Waxaan halkan u joogaa si aan kugula shaqeeyo.

(As someone from the Somali community, I understand that you may have lost more than a home. I am here to work with you.)

If you are struggling — with anxiety, with depression, with grief, with trauma, with substance use, with the weight of building a new life in a new country — you are not alone. What you are experiencing is not weakness. It is the human response to extraordinary circumstances.

And it can get better.

Healing is not a Western concept. Every culture has always known that people need support to process pain, restore balance, and reconnect with themselves and their communities. Therapy — done well and done with cultural humility — is simply one structured way of doing what communities have always done for one another.

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For Healthcare Providers and Referral Sources

If you are a primary care provider, social worker, school counselor, probation officer, or community organization serving East African, Middle Eastern, or immigrant and refugee populations in the Portland metro area — we want to be your partner.

We offer:

• Same-week appointments for new clients
• Coordinated care with referring providers (with client consent)
• Bilingual clinical services eliminating interpreter barriers
• Flexible scheduling including telehealth
• Comprehensive intake and insurance verification support

To refer a client:

• 📞 Phone: 971-266-4257
• 📠 Fax: (971) 497-0577
• 📧 Email: [email protected]
• 🌐 Website: www.healingpowertherapy.com

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Ready to Take the First Step?

If you or someone you love is ready to explore therapy, we make the first step as simple as possible. You don't need to have everything figured out. You don't need to know how to explain what you're feeling. You just need to reach out.

We offer same-week appointments. We accept most major insurance plans. We will meet you where you are — in your language, in your culture, at your pace.

📞 Call or text: 971-266-4257 📧 Email: [email protected] 🌐 Visit: www.healingpowertherapy.com 📍 555 SE MLK Jr Blvd, Suite 105, Portland, OR 97214

Healing is not just possible. It is your right.

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About the Author: Hussein Idow, CSWA, MSW, QMHP, CADC-II-R, MECOHD is the Administrator of Healing Power Therapy, LLC, a state-certified outpatient behavioral health clinic in Portland, Oregon. Hussein is a bilingual mental health therapist and addiction counselor providing culturally responsive services in Somali, Swahili, Amharic, and Arabic to African immigrant, refugee, and Muslim communities in the Portland.

Caveat Article written with help of Claude AI