I am a professional counselor with a combined 10 years of experience in educational counseling, psychotherapy, severe mental illness and psychiatric evaluations. Overall, I am a counselor, but as a person, my life experiences are what have influenced the different areas of counseling that I am involved in. I immigrated to this country at a young age and the experiences that I had as a student led me down the path of school counseling. I wanted children who were bilingual to have a positive experience in which they didn’t feel that their language barrier was equated to their general educational abilities. I grew up in an area that was plagued with poverty, drugs, homelessness. Where high school dropout rates, teenage pregnancy and early death due to gangs were amongst some of the many challenges that were faced daily. I became intrigued by the power of the mind and the resiliency that we as humans have. Wanting to understand people's behavior led me to study psychology and work in severe mental health. I had a desire not only to help, but to understand how we can be affected by our environment and overcome it, to know where our human resilience came from.

What can clients expect to take away from sessions with you?

The first session is all about information, both gathering information about you and what brings you to therapy as well as providing information to empower you to make an informed decision about entering the therapeutic relationship.

Explain to clients what areas you feel are your biggest strengths.

My greatest strength as a provider is understanding that everyone is different and there is no one size fits all. Each journey is unique and needs to be tailored to each individual.

Describe the client(s) you are best positioned to serve.

Change happens when we are ready and curious enough to explore that deep feeling or “knowing” inside us. Change happens when we are open to trying to understand what is going on around us and within us. If you are ready to explore this, curious enough to wonder and open to trying to understand, then I am here to help you empower yourself to deal adequately with life situations and improve your mental health.

About Imelda D