I hold a prior career in art activism and my prior career influences my practice in many different ways. For example, I commit to providing spaces that foster decolonization. My approach includes a lot of transparency and flexibility. I believe therapy is most helpful when it's a hands-on process so I aim to create sessions that end with a tangible tool or goal because sharing our stories is only one piece of the healing process. It’s important for me to share with my clients that I live with chronic mental and physical health issues so I am actively practicing a lot of the same tools I bring forth to clients.

I was pursuing a career in the arts and was passionate about documenting macro-level activism and had some opportunities to be involved in more hands-on change. In this work, I began to need more mental health support myself and I started to notice that due to lack of quality mental health support, a lot of my peers were not able to be consistent in the work they did because of a lack of self-care. All of this made me interested in being a kind of behind-the-scenes support as opposed to the work I was doing before. Even if my clients do not engage in any macro-level activism I still get much more satisfaction and self-care space in supporting people in a more intimate setting.

I enjoy animal care. I believe in the value of animals as support systems but I also enjoy supporting animals in need. Like a lot of people, I love to travel but I especially love traveling to Mexico and connecting with my indigenous roots. I like to garden and grow a community with my neighbors.

Engaging with animals! My pets help me with my mental and physical health in many different ways, including having patience for normal mischievous behavior.

Mexico Unconquered—I was an Art History major in my undergrad so I love intellectual reads but I tend to fall in love the most with easy reads. This book is written by a journalist and I enjoy that style. The subject matter is near and dear to my heart. I love learning about my own culture and learning history that was not taught to me in school to continue to dismantle internalized white supremacy which affects the mental health of so many of us.

Frosted Faces: I love that they offer safe space, especially to elderly and disabled pets.

Luxe Paws: They focus on trap and release and I think it's such an important service to help out our outdoor city cats not only because shelters are overwhelmed but because some cats just won't do well indoors.

Tia Chuchas: I love that their focus is Latine Literary culture but I also have been able to access so many other resources from them like classes for indigenous languages.

Honestly, by vegging out and actually resting, living with chronic illness has taught me that self-care does not always have to be something grand that feels "productive". Sometimes I am actually most productive or feel the best about my day when I take a lot of breaks throughout the day and sometimes I need a full day or more of complete rest.

I do, I have multiple pets! Despite caring about them all and appreciating their different stories and personalities, my oldest pet holds my favorite story. Simone is a gorgeous 15-year-old cat and she became my cat by following me around the neighborhood I lived at the time and eventually breaking into my house several times. She once specifically broke into my room despite having had roommates at the time. I just love her tenacity to have a safe space for herself and her commitment to selecting me even though I really didn't know a thing about cats at the time and didn't actually want the responsibility at first. As someone who learned to survive life by being hyper-independent and somewhat avoidant at that time in my life, she taught me that it's okay to need people and that being needy is normal and not at all a sign of weakness. She is a fierce cat and I respect her for teaching me to be less hard.