Elena Herrera (she/her)

My life's work has been serving people from communities who have limited access to quality services in a language they speak. I've worked as an advocate for undocumented students on a college campus, and I offered trainings and workshops to improve cultural competency for students and therapists. I've participated myself in trainings and have done extensive readings to help better understand the challenges people face.

I worked for a number of years in clinics providing short term therapy. So, I had to learn how to help people find relief from anxiety in a short amount of time. I utilize cognitive behavioral strategies to teach people about their anxiety symptoms and why they shouldn't be feared, but rather, understood. Once people understand what's happening, anxiety loses some of its power. From there, we can learn how to manage it until their lives become more comfortable.

Half of my career has been spent working with teenagers with anger issues, depression, and parental conflict. Some of them had been abused and in and out of juvenile justice or residential facilities. I focus on creating trust in the relationship with a teen. They just want to be understood and not seen as defective. If they can trust me, they can let me in. Here's what I've learned: the majority of teens acting out aren't bad. They're lost, confused, and need some guidance from a trusted adult.

The identities you hold, where you come from, who came before you, the values you hold, and the values you were raised with make you who you are. Sometimes we struggle and want to pull away from what our culture, family, or society states for us. That's a real struggle. How much do we keep? What do we want to eliminate? Is it even possible to eliminate some of those things? These are things worth thinking about and exploring.

I teach people about their thoughts, how they influence our feelings, and what happens after that. We also discover where the thoughts come from, whether they're useful or harmful, and how we can learn different ways of thinking, while still holding firm in our values and realities of life. I'm not rigid in providing homework, but I encourage practicing the skills outside of session and then telling me all about it. We can then problem solve and fine tune those skills for the future.

This is my one of my favorite theories I've ever learned about. Through the lens of our attachment, meaning the relationships we experienced and learned from starting at birth, influences how we manage stress, how we see ourselves, and how we view others and the world. It can even influence who and how we choose our partners. Going in to our histories isn't to bring shame for our past choices, but rather, to understand and gain compassion for ourselves.