My path to becoming a therapist was anything but straightforward. It was filled with both successes and challenges, from my personal healing to professional growth. Yet, each hurdle taught me something valuable and shaped me into the therapist I am today. I’d like to share a bit of that journey with you, hoping it offers some encouragement as you begin or
restart your own therapy process.
I was raised in the San Francisco Bay Area in a single-parent household. My mother, an immigrant from El Salvador, passed early in my life. In the aftermath of her loss, the parenting I received was both loving and inconsistent, largely due to the pervasive and lasting effects of addiction. During those unstable times, I learned how to fend for myself at a young age.
Looking back, I now recognize how challenging this period of my life was – avoiding home because of the unpredictability of it, escaping through competitive soccer and reading, and
seeking validation through academic and personal achievements.
It was around then that I first entered therapy. My therapy wasn’t a crispy realization, initially. I floundered in it at first, looking for solutions for all my external behaviors and day-to-day problems. And that helped for a while. But after I achieved many of the things that I thought would bring me peace – reaching the upper echelons of academia, the validation of a fancy job title, the partner – I still didn’t feel out of the crucible.
Eventually, I returned to therapy. With much support, I made several difficult decisions to let go of the things I had used to mask my discomfort with myself. This marked the beginning of the real work – examining the core wounds. I started working with a therapist trained in EMDR, which helped me see a particularly traumatic experience from a safer and much more empowering perspective. From that point, my healing process gained quick and significant momentum, and today, my life feels more purpose-driven than ever before.
This brings me back to how I became a therapist with a focus on trauma. I knew I wanted to help others navigate similar paths, so I started the process of becoming a therapist. But I still didn’t know which specialty would allow me to create the most impact with clients. While in graduate school, interning at a group practice and treatment center, I received an email from a professor with a scholarship opportunity to be trained in EMDR. Having personally benefitted from EMDR, I applied and was fortunate enough to receive the scholarship.
Suddenly, the answer of how to best help my clients was right in front of me. I immediately began using EMDR with my clients and witnessed rapid transformations that I hadn’t seen with months of traditional talk therapy. My clients began experiencing breakthroughs similar to my own. In the process, they began recognizing their own resilience and taking steps toward changes that they had only imagined before.
Becoming a trauma professional and psychotherapist has been one of the most fulfilling decisions in my life. It has inspired me to help people turn their struggles into narratives of growth and authenticity, reflecting my own journey. I am truly privileged to continue this
meaningful work. If you are interested in learning more about therapy, reach out and I'm happy to discuss how I might help.