The Hopeful Existentialist: Vi
Bio: About Vi
The Person & The Therapist
As an integrative, existential, holistic, feminist, and trauma-informed therapist, I believe that you have the right to know some things about me as a human being and as a therapist.
I am Euro-American (half British and half American), although I was raised in Texas. 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, which help foster the mind-body-nature connection, such as running, taking walks in nature, dance, yoga, martial arts, and more.
As a survivor of different types of trauma and adverse experiences*, I believe that my experiences have helped me understand some of the complex and interrelated systemic 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, other related violence situations, post-traumatic-stress-disorder and post-traumatic growth, single parenting in poverty, etc.
Educational Degrees:
Tarleton State University -
Master of Science in Clinical Mental Health Counseling
The University of Texas at Austin -
Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, with a minor in Sociology
My Background and Parts of My Journey:
I graduated from high school at the age of 16, in the top 5% of my class. A few years later, I graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelors of Psychology and a minor in Sociology, at the age of 20. At the age of 22, I became a single mother to my incredible daughter after enduring a high risk pregnancy. After giving birth to my daughter, I became a therapeutic foster parent to teenagers, while preparing for graduate school and raising my daughter from infancy to early childhood.
After leaving my role as a therapeutic foster parent, I decided to enroll in graduate school at Tarleton State University and to pursue a career as a therapist. I graduated from Tarleton State University with a Masters of Science in Clinical Mental Health Counseling, in the top 10% of the school, and as a member of several honor societies such as Alpha Chi Honor Society, Chi Sigma Iota Counseling Academic and Professional Honor Society, The Society for Collegiate Leadership and Achievement, and Gamma Beta Phi Honor Society.
As a counseling student, I worked as a research assistant in academic settings then I went on to provide services at several clinical internships in mental health hospital settings. I provided clinical therapy internship services with MHMR at The Billy Gregory Detox, a substance abuse inpatient treatment detox unit, and at The Pine Street residential inpatient treatment rehabilitation center. After graduation, I worked as an Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) Facilitator for a dual treatment substance abuse Matrix Model center and in general public outpatient settings as an individual therapist.
Over the years, I acquired areas of knowledge in different fields, which helped me to understand complex issues on a societal level, human/spiritual level, and on a scientific level. I learned the scientific and academic models of psychology, counseling, neuroscience and sociology, while understanding the reality of trauma and healing, in my own personal life and while working with people from other backgrounds and communities.
Some examples of my coursework includes subjects such as: psychology, sociology, human development, behavioral neuroscience; memory, perception, and cognition; child development; social psychology; nonverbal communication; government; history; anthropology; culture, minority and gender issues; criminal justice; psychopathology; criminology; etc., and on.
My fieldwork, experiences, coursework, and trainings helped me to deeply understand and connect issues across different fields of research and frames of thought, especially around the history of issues such as racism, classism, sexism, sexuality, spirituality, social justice, and on.
Connecting Across Intersections of Life and Fields of Practice:
There are countless factors that impact each person's life journey. Some of these factors include:
personal strengths; personality traits; differences in thinking or relating; economic issues like poverty or wealth; community relationships; family relationships; social support; negative (or traumatic) and positive life experiences; environment; intergenerational trauma; systemic issues and/or systemic oppression; family background and upbringing; genetics and epigenetics; and on.
An existential, Integrative, EMDR, Attachment Based, Somatic and Neuroscience informed therapist.
The Personal and Professional Journey
I am a profound believer in the transformative power of post traumatic growth.
As a trauma survivor, a single mother, and an adult child of intergenerational trauma family dynamics, my personal and professional life experiences, along with spiritual and psychological life lessons, have helped shape my practice framework into what it is today, while working with individuals on their own life journeys.
I have worked with individuals from many different backgrounds with diverse trauma histories and symptoms. My professional experiences in the mental health field, in addition to my own experiences as a trauma survivor 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.
Different time periods of my life have helped me expand my knowledge and understanding of the complex nature of humanity and social systems: at the individual level, the societal level, and the global level.
Throughout my life, I was able to see, experience, and understand how many of these systemic issues impact individuals, peers, sometimes myself, and different communities—directly, indirectly, and insidiously—in many different ways.
Furthermore, I was able to form and apply an integrative and existential perspective in my attitudes, values, and beliefs regarding how I live my life, how I perceive the world, how I show up personally in the world, and how I work with others professionally as a therapist.
We are all interconnected.
"I often work with motivated, goal-oriented, and driven individuals ready to heal at the root level."
"Many people have been impacted by negative relationship experiences, childhood trauma, and other complex experiences. Let's walk together on this journey. You don't have to travel on this path alone."
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"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."
- Existential Theory, Derek Truscott
