(he/him)
New to Grow
I've been a therapist for about eight years with a keen eye for helping others find deeper meaning through their hardships, a calming presence capable of modeling self-regulation, and a reliable ear for those that need to unload their perceived stress across different life chapters. I also offer a modern, diverse openness for cultural understanding as I am a male Latino fluent in Spanish, have Asian ethnicity, and am first-generation American. I can also empathize with perceived struggles as I grew up with low SES, was greatly affected by a custody battle into my teenage years, and became the primary healthcare agent for my father-figure until his passing from cancer during my early twenties. In more recent years, I learned the differences in transitioning from the role of a stepfather to becoming a father of a newborn. Understanding one's own pain from their story is key to learning the balancing act of validating and/or differentiating how to help others process their felt pain. I offer my therapeutic services as your existential teammate who will metaphorically walk by your side along your therapeutic journey.
First sessions will largely include information gathering such as the presenting problems of the client. Information provided by the therapist regarding the treatment modality, clinical expertise, cultural awareness, etc. may also be introduced to initiate the therapeutic relationship between therapist and client. Formalities such as structure of sessions, payment, and scheduling will also apply to the process of informed consent during our first meeting. Overall, the initial assessment stage of therapy may take several sessions as it seeks to understand the client's current story in relation to the perceived stressors. More formal Tx planning offered by the therapist toward the conclusion of the initial assessment stage of treatment may include a clinical diagnosis and differentiation between potential short-term and long-term goals in therapy.
My greatest strength has been integrating various models of therapy to adapt to the different populations I've served throughout the years while embracing a trauma-informed lens. Code-switching for different themes has become part of my skillset for enhancing other's learning processes. My experience gives me flexibility to be able to work with clients ranging from the logical thinkers that need step-by-step, linear thinking such as a CBT approach, or I can divert to metaphors and imagery for more emotionally-attuned clients. I can even provide therapy for individuals, couples, or families fully in Spanish if needed as I am fluent. I started my career in school-based counseling with adolescents, but the majority of my career has been providing therapy in community-based settings across various intensities for level of care. Approximately four years were at the intensive outpatient (IOP) level of care working with 5-21 year olds with various forms of intergenerational trauma, suicidality, self-harm, family conflicts, chronic illness, and other behavioral concerns, etc. This IOP program trained me in Trauma-Focused CBT which seeks a balance of therapy that incorporates: 1- trauma psychoeducation, 2- safety seeking skills for coping with trauma-related Sx, and 3- processing a trauma narrative. That IOP program later merged with the lower level outpatient (OPC) level of care where I became the Lead Clinician and held onto my own cases while mentoring more inexperienced clinicians during their practicum or early associate licensures. Eventually my clinical experience and mentorship grew into program management and clinical supervision at the higher intensity full-service-partnership (FSP) level of care often working in mutli-disciplinary teams. This FSP experience allowed me to also provide clinical supervision from a team-based approach capable of serving children and transitional age youth into their mid-twenties. The FSP experience trained me in the TIP model or "Transition to Independence Process" which blends therapeutic services across an individual's life domains (personal effectiveness & wellbeing, community-life functioning, higher achievement through education/employment support, etc.). I've also taught practicum classes and facilitated group labs as an adjunct professor in Santa Clara University's Counseling Psychology Program over the past 3 years.
All clients are welcome from those seeking symptom management to those wanting to find deeper meaning through life transitions. Some clients question their life decisions, values, and find themselves feeling lost at a fork in the road. Some clients harbor long-term pain from unprocessed trauma that has become overwhelming to bear alone. My ideal client is one who is motivated to seek a greater understanding of their worldview, how their identity and overall story developed over time, and want to make changes for the next chapters of their life.
Existential
Whether transitioning to a new life chapter or perceiving self to be stuck in a current or past chapter, the existential Tx modality offers a different clinical presentation is often described as similar to a teammate helping the client explore the alignment between one's behaviors and values systems to reinforce meaning-making and overall identity development. The use of metaphors can also further the client's internal emotional processes as they relate to identity shifts, life transitions, achievements, perceived losses, and the overall search for a more fulfilled purpose in life, etc. It is the role of the existential therapist to figuratively walk with a client side-by-side as they approach the doorway of the existential unknown and eventually assist the client in pushing through into their more concrete here-and-now experience. This Tx modality is ideal for clients in periods of transition, those who question when to accept, change, or adjust, those that strive for a deeper understanding of recurrent patterns in life, if one's life domains have long-standing questions, unfinished business, or perceived losses, the hardships from seeking transformation out of trauma, and reinterpreting life chapters/stages into opportunities for finding meaning.
Psychodynamic
Psychodynamic therapy often focuses on the perceived attachments or relationship dynamics that were learned during one's upbringing within the family of origin. It is believed that an individual learns how to relate to one another based on these early attachment styles and that future relationship dynamics are often reenacting these earlier behavior cycles. These relationship dynamics can include the perceived misses in early relationships, traumatic experiences that have been projected upon or impacted one's worldview, or even idealized relationships that disappoint when reality does not match expectations. This therapeutic modality aims to help the client understand the bridge between their past and their current interpersonal development. Sometimes the breakthrough comes from the therapeutic insight from a perceived trauma, but this overall Tx process can take time as the next steps involve the trials and errors of changing how one interacts with others over time. There may be acceptance or reconciliation within past relationships or there may be uncharted opportunities for new relationships with life desires previously unexplored. This long-term Tx modality is ideal for the type of client who is unsatisfied with their sum of relationships, willing to take a deep dive into their past to explore insights into how they became this way, and motivated to make incremental changes to live a more fulfilled life.