Bilingual Therapist for First-Generation in California
Therapy for first-generation adults, teens, or couples who are the reliable one, the calm one, the one everybody leans on, and who are quietly running on empty.
Bilingual, English and Spanish. Telehealth across California.
no pressure
You've been translating at the bank and the doctor's office since you were a child.
You're the first one called when something goes wrong. You're rarely the one asked how you're doing.
You said yes an hour ago and you've been annoyed about it ever since.
You clock a shift in someone's mood before they've noticed it themselves.
This Might Be You
You send money home. You feel guilty about resenting it.
Rest is something you have to earn, and somehow you never finish earning it.
By every measure you were raised to care about, you're doing well. Most days you feel nothing much about that.
You wouldn't say any of this out loud. Somebody in your family had it harder.
If you got to the end of that and thought "other people have it worse," I'd want to talk about that too.
Safe enough to stop holding it all together.
A lot of therapy starts from the idea that something in you went wrong and needs correcting. I don't work that way.
Nothing changes because you finally understood it. Things change when your body stops bracing long enough to try something different. That's what we build first, getting comfortable with the discomfort.
A lot of what you carry was never personal. It got shaped by immigration, by class, by racism, by what the people in your family were expected to absorb without saying anything about it. Some of those patterns kept you alive, so we're not sorting them into good and bad.
I was raised around traditional Latin American healing and trained in clinical models.
So we practice an approach of working with your mind, your body, and your soul, along with the people you come from.
What people notice after a while: saying no without spending three days on it. Making decisions that came from you instead of from guilt or fear. Accepting the past and deciding for your own future. That's the part worth paying for.
Because this is the only life you get.
Hi, I’m Heidy
I'm a bilingual Associate Marriage and Family Therapist, and I'm first-generation myself. I grew up in a Guatemalan immigrant household in Los Angeles.
That doesn't mean I'll assume I know your story. It means you can tell it without the extra work of explaining why you can't just walk away from the job everyone's proud of, or why leaving someone isn't as simple as it sounds, or softening the people you love so I don't think badly of them.
I'm warm and I'm fairly direct. I don't do toxic positivity. I don’t shame or judge. I am curious about how you came to be, and I wonder how we would like to move forward with that information.
THERAPY THAT FEELS LIKE YOU
THIS IS A SPACE FOR
LGBTQ+ clients.
BIPOC clients
Neurodivergent clients, diagnosed or self-identified.
Immigrant and mixed-status families. Nothing here goes on a record.
People with a complicated relationship to the religion they grew up in.
People who've tried therapy before and left feeling unseen.
WHAT I HELP WITH
Where people usually start.
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You may find yourself constantly replaying conversations, anticipating worst-case scenarios, or struggling to slow down your thoughts even when you’re exhausted.
You don't have to keep white-knuckling through the day.
Learn More -
You agree first and resent it later. You track the mood of everyone in the room without meaning to. Saying no doesn't feel like a boundary, it feels closer to betrayal.
You can stop shrinking yourself to keep everyone else comfortable. -
You stay longer than you should because you're sure you can help. You give people energy they've never once given back. You know what everyone needs from you and couldn't say what you need from them.
Therapy can help you better understand the emotional patterns and protective strategies shaping the way you connect with others.
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Chronic stress, numbness, and feeling distanced from your own life can wear you down. Therapy offers practical tools to regulate your nervous system, reconnect with what matters, and allows you to want more than just getting through the day.
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You did everything right and you're not sure who picked it. The career, the path, the version of you everyone's proud of. Underneath it is a question about what you'd want if nobody needed anything from you.
In sessions, we’ll explore who you are, what you value, and how to live in a way that honors your unique story while building a clear path forward.
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for the ones who made it out, made it through, and still feel like they owe someone something.
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for partners navigating love in two languages, two cultures or two very different families of origin.
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for adolescents caught between who their family needs them to be and who they’re becoming and for parents trying to reach them.
How I Approach Therapy
I work psychodynamically, somatically, and relationally. In plain terms, that means a few things.
We look at where it came from. Not to sit in it, but to understand what it was protecting you from, so it stops running things without checking with you first.
We pay attention to your body. The bracing, the shutting down, the tightness that shows up before you know why. That's information, and it usually arrives before words do.
And we get curious about the different parts of you rather than trying to shout them down. The part that pleases, the part that goes cold, the tired part. They're all strategies that worked at some point and never got told they could stop.
Your culture and your family aren't background I'll be careful around.
For most of my clients, they're the actual material.
FAQ
The practical part
$175 for a 50-minute individual session
$200 for a 50-minute couples session
Telehealth anywhere in California,
in-person in Los Angeles
Free 15-minute consult before you commit to anything
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Yes. I offer a free 15-minute consultation to discuss your needs and determine whether we may be a good fit.
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The first session is an opportunity for us to get to know each other, explore what brings you to therapy, and discuss your goals, concerns, and what support may look like moving forward.
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Finding the right therapeutic fit matters. We can briefly discuss what you’re looking for in therapy, any questions you may have, and whether my approach feels aligned with your needs.
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Yes. I offer both virtual and in-person therapy sessions in California, and we can discuss which option may feel like the best fit for your needs and schedule.
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Yes I accept Cigna Healthcare, Carelon Behavioral Health, Health Net, Optum, UnitedHealthcare, TRICARE, Kaiser Permanente Southern California/Northern California, Health Net Behavioral Health.
You may have a deductible; we can provide services to check your coverage.
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A few reasons people choose private pay even with insurance: When you use insurance, a diagnosis must be placed on your record, which can affect future coverage, life insurance, and employment in certain fields. Private pay means complete confidentiality between you and your therapist, with no third-party involvement in your care. It also means I set the treatment plan based on what you need, not what your insurance approves. For many clients, that freedom is worth the investment.
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It means I practice under the supervision of Jason Murphy, LMFT, at Trauma Resolution Therapy Group while I finish my hours toward independent licensure.
Practically speaking, my work gets reviewed regularly by an experienced clinician, so there's a second set of eyes on your care. -
Yes. English, Spanish, or switching between them mid-sentence, which is how plenty of my clients actually think.
