Colibri Wellness is a NYC-based, BIPOC woman-owned mental health collective.

HABLAMOS ESPAÑOL Colibri Wellness offers individual and group counseling, divorce and custody coaching, as well as immigration evaluations for asylum applications and other UCSIS proceedings. IMMIGRATION PSYCHOLOGICAL EVALUATIONS Colibri Wellness specializes in offering reduced-rate forensic evaluations for immigration proceedings, including removal proceedings that involve extreme hardship to children or adults, domestic/spousal abuse waivers, evaluations for political asylum, and disability exemptions for U.S. citizenship. We also offer post-evaluation care for families who are the subjects of these reports, since the process of creating them can often kick up trauma that was never acknowledged, attended to or healed. PHILOSOPHY Colibri Wellness centers its healing practice on the interconnectedness and liberation of all beings. We believe that living apart from these truths creates collective, violent delusion. We are a BIPOC woman-owned social enterprise dedicated to building a global community that enables liberation from what has made the dominant society (and everyone within it) so extremely unwell. The collective's approach is informed by a focus on the body in relationship and in the present moment, the workings of trauma, and the transformative potential of neuroplasticity. ABOUT OUR PRACTICE DIRECTOR In creating a healing collective, I have drawn from my experience as a first-generation daughter of immigrants, my overpriced education, decades of professional experience in the trenches of NYC white collar corporate life, and my diverse clinical training. While I acknowledge the work I've completed to understand the science behind both Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP) and Emotion Focused Therapy (EFT), I also keep in mind that the treatment frameworks I've been formally trained to use can't be separated from the patriarchal, white supremacist society that was the context for their creation. As such, I continue to train in community means of healing and therapeutic connection that are native to the precolonial Americas, including community/group work and the tenets of the kitchen-table consejería I am proud to say is my inheritance from my Mexican foremothers. I am a graduate of Columbia University (BA) and the Silberman School of Social Work (MSW) at Hunter College and a member of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies. I am licensed to practice in both New York and Connecticut. As a light-skinned, cis-het middle-aged woman and mother, I am in a period of accelerated growth and transition. Specifically, I have come to see that approaching mental health, healing and immigration work through any individual lens is insufficient. My work to decolonize the field of mental health, this counseling practice and myself will be ongoing. I'm often asked, "What can be done about traumas of my past at point?" The thing is, our brain loves the truth and thrives on its presence. So at a minimum, in therapy we can acknowledge our lived experiences and feel whatever they made us (and still make us!) feel. That alone is a revolution and a huge relief. Together, we'll learn how our emotions function to protect us and how to get into the habit of letting our emotions process through to completion. Our connection and this simple work, over time, can help our brains finally (FINALLY) get some much-needed rest and peace, which is essential to healing. Along the way, we will get to know the depth of strength and wellness that has lived within all along.