"I often work with cycle breakers on journeys of individual growth who have been impacted by
generational trauma, negative relationship and/or family dynamics, emotional abuse and/or neglect, narcissistic abuse, and other adverse experiences."
- Vi
The Hopeful Existentialist: Vi
​Hi. My name is Vi and I am a queer, intersectional feminist, existential, eclectic, somatic informed, trauma informed and holistic based therapist.
As a holistic therapist, I believe in incorporating techniques to help growth on:
the psychological level,
the emotional level,
the somatic (physical) level,
the human ( aka spiritual/existential) level (i.e. values, meaning, spirituality, etc.)
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As an existential therapist, spirituality is often discussed and/or incorporated from a non-religious context. The context of spirituality is based upon your own beliefs and meaning regarding what you believe and value.
During the screening and intake process, we can discuss any questions you may have regarding any of the concepts regarding my therapy style.
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Bio: About Vi
The Person & The Therapist
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As an existential, intersectional feminist, decolonizing, somatic and trauma informed therapist, I believe that you have a right to know some things about me as a human being and as a therapist:
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I am half British and half American, although I was raised in Texas. I advocate for social justice and I believe in community based healing. I am spiritual but not religious however, I ascribe to a Buddhist, agnostic, humanistic, and existential oriented philosophy personally. I am neurodivergent and on the left politically. I am queer, White, and Euro-American. I often use genderless, non-binary, and cis-woman interchangeably to express my gender identity, as I do not ascribe to the gender binary nor gender norms.
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I am a single mom to an amazing human. I love nature, cats, writing, reading, self-expression, creating different types of art, and many other things. I also enjoy hobbies that involve movement and mindfulness that help the mind-body-nature connection, such as running, taking walks in nature, dance, yoga, martial arts, and on.
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As a survivor of different types of trauma and adverse experiences, I believe that this helped me to understand the complex and systemic related factors that impact mental, emotional, physical, relational, and spiritual levels of harm, trauma, and healing.
i.e. intergenerational trauma, familial addiction related dynamics, betrayal trauma, sexual violence and trafficking related dynamics, post traumatic stress disorder and post traumatic growth, living as a single mother in poverty, and other adverse experiences. As an individual who has navigated both sides of the therapy world, I am extremely passionate about trauma informed care, neurodiversity, post traumatic growth, and social justice.
​My Background and Parts of My Journey:
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Education: I have a Masters of Science in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Tarleton State University and a Bachelors Degree in Psychology, with a minor in Sociology, from the University of Texas at Austin. ​
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Over the years, I acquired areas of knowledge in different multidisciplinary fields, which helped me to understand complex issues on a systemic, human, and scientific level. I had the opportunity to learn at the educational, systemic, scientific, personal, and decolonizing (intersectional feminist) frameworks, while applying and deconstructing different concepts.
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Some of these courses that helped me understand various individual, community, social, and systemic issues included subjects such as: psychology, sociology, criminal justice, the sociology of religion and society, government, history/anthropology, child development, psychopathology, social psychology, nonverbal communication, human development, behavioral neuroscience; memory, perception, and cognition, etc.
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Connecting Issues Across Intersections and Fields of Thought:
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These courses were helpful in deconstructing and connecting issues across different fields of research and frames of thought regarding issues such as racism, classism, sexism, colorism, sexuality, anti-lgbtq+ ideology and on. For example, in applying concepts from courses such as human development; sociology; culture, minority and gender issues; criminal justice; criminology; behavioral neuroscience; child development; and other courses.
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There are factors and contexts that impact and contribute to each person's situation, life circumstances, personality, and lived experiences. Some of these contexts include the presence or lack thereof with factors such as:
Family and/or social support (social factors), systemic dynamics, family environment background and upbringing, life changes, genetics and epigenetics, economic background (poverty, wealth, etc.), trauma and negative (adverse) life experiences, individual traits and differences, personality differences, communities, relationships, and on.
My Personal and Professional Journey
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Different time periods of my life, helped me to theoretically and experientially expand on my understanding of the complex nature of issues at the individual, societal, and world levels.
During young adulthood, adolescence and childhood, I experienced positive, negative, traumatic, and mixed personal, academic and professional experiences. My views on the world, life, people, and therapy and my experiences shaped my professional framework into what it is today.
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An existential, intersectional feminist, holistic, trauma informed, and somatic informed therapist.
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I am a survivor of different traumatic and adverse, experiences, for example intergenerational trauma, past abusive/harmful relationships, betrayal trauma, sexual violence, trafficking related dynamics, post traumatic stress disorder, post traumatic growth, living as a single mother in poverty while navigating graduate school and systemic dysfunction, and on, etc.
A Window into Different Social, Class, and Professional Settings:
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As an adolescent and young adult, I worked many different jobs in the customer service, childcare, and retail fields. As a young adult during and after undergraduate and graduate school, I worked as a foster parent to adolescents, in academia as a research assistant, as a counseling graduate student intern in mental health institutional settings (substance treatment detox unit, inpatient, intensive outpatient, etc.) and later on I worked as an outpatient therapist after graduation.
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I was given the opportunity throughout my life to see, experience, and understand how many of these systemic issues impact individuals, peers, at times myself, and different communities directly, indirectly, and insidiously in many different ways.​
I have worked with individuals from many different backgrounds with different types of trauma histories and symptoms. My professional experiences in the mental health field, in addition to my own experiences of being a cycle breaker and working through my own healing in therapy, helped me to understand the experiential and existential complexity of trauma, healing, personal growth, and post traumatic growth. ​
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I was able to form and apply a holistic and multifaceted perspective, in my attitude, values, and beliefs as to how I live my life as a person, in addition to how I perceive the world, how I show up in and understand different communities, and in how I work with others professionally as a therapist. ​
"Do your little bit of good where you are; it's those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world." - Desmond Tutu
"Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it." - Helen Keller
"Hope is essential to any political struggle for radical change" - bell hooks
"Life is a continual emerging, a becoming of one's true self."Â
-Â Existential Theory, Derek Truscott
