We were lucky to catch up with Maira M. Hernandez recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Maira M. thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear the story behind how you got your first job in field that you currently practice in.

I was accepted to the Masters of Science in Counseling with an option in Marriage and Family Therapy on January 2009 at Fresno State. As a graduate student, we had to do our clinical training at the outpatient community mental health clinic through Fresno State, called the Fresno Family Counseling Center. Here we did hands on clinical practice servicing the community’s mental health needs. At the time, approximately 2010, I started volunteering outside of my practicum time. I saw a huge need of what this clinic can potentially provide for the community. The clinic was only a practicum site, meaning, graduate students would only come and service the community’s mental health needs on their practicum time with their clinical supervisors who are also professors in the graduate program. I met with the Director, Christopher Lucey, PhD, LMFT and Associate Director, Kyle Weir, PhD, LMFT and I told them, “You need to hire me.” I explained that the center had the potential to reach many families through outreach and opening every day. Around this time, we had a few students completing their placement hours in order to graduate, but it was not fully operational. And so for the next year, I continued volunteering until May 2011 when I graduated, and was offered an Office Manager position. With a group of other friends, we started to attend outreach events and spreading the word. We went from servicing approx 400 sessions in 2010 to 10,000 sessions. Fresno Family has been the biggest accomplishment of my career. I was able to network with various organizations, social services agencies, and doctors offices. We contributed to workshops, conferences, and educational opportunities through T.V. and radio. After 10 years, it was the saddest ‘good bye’ I had to do but I knew it was time to move on and do private practice. To this day, Fresno Family is fully operational, offering low-cost mental health services 7 days a week, 8am-8pm with over 60 counselors servicing the community. I have recently returned to be a clinical supervisor, where I provide culturally sensitive clinical supervision to Marriage, Family, Child Counselor trainees in the program. I am a go getter! I have a vision, and I execute it!

Maira M. , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Maira M. Hernandez. I am a bilingual Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and owner of my private practice call M. H. Family Counseling and Consulting, A Professional Corporation. As a LMFT, I provide mental health services, provide clinical mental health evaluations for immigrations cases [Asylum (no oral testimony), VAWA, Extreme Hardship, Cancellation of Removal, U-Visa, and T-Visa), and consulting services. I have completed various trauma informed trainings in order to take into consideration goal setting and treatment planning for my patients.

As a bilingual mental health clinician, I am proud to be able to provide services in the patient’s native language. I know how difficult it can be for individuals to have culturally sensitive and accessible services. I pride myself in being a life long learner and so, I invest time and resources to attend workshops and trainings that elevate the services I provide for bilingual and monolingual Spanish speakers. I enjoy connecting and networking with organizations and agencies to promote bilingual mental health services and continue to destigmatize mental health.

When I provide evaluation services, I take on a trauma informed approach (as I do with all of my services). Many of the clients are coming in with various stressors, and traumatic stories. It is important that I create a safe space for them to be able to share their experiences, and those related to immigration. My job is to provide an objective assessment for their unique immigration case. I ensure that I provide them information on the process of my service so they are prepared to provide me with the information I need to conduct the evaluation.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

I feel like the reputation that I have in the community has to do with the way that I have always carried myself. My parents instilled in me to treat everyone with respect. They taught me that everyone deserves to be treated with kindness. And so in my work, in the way I connect with patients, clients, and network, I uphold those values.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

One lesson that I have had to unlearn is that I must follow through with setting and upholding my boundaries. Through my own therapy, I learned that in our cultura Mexicana and Latina, specifically for women, we are taught to be self-sacrificial. We have to give, and give, and give. But at some point, we will not have anything else to give. I learned that I needed to create boundaries for my personal well-being, even in the workplace. I had to learn to say “No.” It was difficult at the beginning, but slowly and gradually it became easier. I felt guilt and thought that maybe I wasn’t “cut for the job” or my “loyalty” to my job would be questioned. These thoughts came from those early learned patterns. I had to let go of any feelings of guilt and be ok that when I set boundaries that it may contribute to negative feelings felt by others, but those are not my responsibility to hold. I learned that boundaries also included, not responding to work emails and phone calls when on vacation or when off sick. We are often gaslighted that we many not be a “team player” but no, it’s a simple respect of my time. Through the years, I’ve respected my boundaries and learned that THAT is also a form of self-love!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://mhfamilycounselingandconsulting.com/
• Instagram: maira.chicana
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mairamhernandez/