The Hopeful Existentialist: Vi
​​​Bio: About Vi
The Person & The Therapist
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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.
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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.
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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.​​​
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*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.
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​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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I graduated from high school early at the age of 16, in the top 5% of my class with 18 hours of undergraduate college credit. 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.
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While transitioning out of 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.
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I worked several internships as a counseling student with MHMR at The Billy Gregory Detox and The Pine Street Inpatient Rehabilitation Center. After graduation, I also worked as an Intensive Outpatient Program Facilitator for a Dual Treatment Substance Abuse Matrix Model Center and as an Individual Therapist.
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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. ​
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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.
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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.
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Connecting Issues Across Intersections and Fields of Thought:​
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There are countless factors that impact each person's life journey. Some of these factors include:
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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, Attachment Based, Somatic and Neuroscience informed therapist.
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The Personal and Professional Journey
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I am a profound believer in the transformative power of post traumatic growth.
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I am a trauma survivor, a single mother, an adult child of intergenerational trauma family dynamics (emotionally immature/personality disordered/addiction oriented family dynamics). My personal experiences in life, in experiential learning, and in working with individuals clinically, have helped shape my professional framework into what it is today.
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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.
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Different time periods in 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.
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I have previous experience working as a therapeutic foster parent to adolescents and as a research assistant in academic settings. I later provided services as a counseling intern in mental health hospital settings, such as a substance abuse inpatient treatment detox unit at The Billy Gregory Detox, a residential inpatient treatment center at Pine Street, an intensive outpatient program (IOP) treatment, and in general public outpatient settings as a therapist.​
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Throughout my life, I have been 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.
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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.
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We are all interconnected.
"I often work with motivated, goal-oriented, and driven individuals ready to heal at the root level."​
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"Many executives and high achieving professionals have been impacted by negative relationship experiences, childhood trauma and other complex experiences. Let's talk and walk together on this journey. I'm familiar with this road. 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."Â
-Â Existential Theory, Derek Truscott
