About Me:

Growing up, I saw my family embody values like hard work, sacrifice, perseverance, and familismo. Over time, I realized many of these values were often carried through the lens of survival. I saw this show up through patterns like burnout being normalized, emotions not being talked about, productivity becoming tied to self worth, being called lazy for wanting rest, and not always having language for emotional experiences.

At the same time, I also saw the healing that already existed within my culture and community: humor, storytelling, closeness, resilience, mutual support, and deep care for one another. (La cultura cura). Over time, I came to understand that the problem was never our values themselves, but the systems and conditions surrounding them including colonialism, capitalism, white supremacy, machismo, patriarchy, and generational survival.

For most of my life, I didn’t really see people who looked like me doing this kind of work or openly talking about mental health. Because of that, I didn’t always think these spaces were meant for me either. That began changing through conversations with other people who were also craving spaces to talk honestly about identity, burnout, emotions, family, and mental health. Those conversations pushed me toward reconnecting with culture, values, and healing in a more balanced and intentional way.

That eventually led me into nonprofit and community based work where the core of what I was doing was supporting people and communities in different ways. Over time, that path pushed me toward therapy and eventually toward building my own practice in a way that felt more reflective of the communities I come from.

One of my biggest hurdles growing up was living with undiagnosed ADHD. It wasn’t until I was already a therapist and began my own therapy journey that I started understanding ADHD might be part of my story too. I was eventually diagnosed at 28, and that experience gave me language and context for many of the struggles I had growing up.

Today I try to create the kind of space I wish existed for more people growing up where people can show up as their whole selves without leaving anything at the door, especially their culture.