We recently connected with Erika Esquivel and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Erika, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about how you went about setting up your own practice and if you have any advice for professionals who might be considering starting their own?

Honestly, getting my practice started was rough, but so worth it. I had three months to jump-start my virtual counseling practice and I felt overwhelmed quickly. I was hoping to be able to take my time with opening up my own practice, but as usual, life has a way of fast-tracking future goals and my timeline was moved up. After helpful conversations with my support system about my possible options, I knew starting my practice and working for myself was going to be most fulfilling and decided to start the process. Through the fear, I found my bravery and confidence in myself.

Coming up with a name was the fun part: Willflower Counseling. It came to me when I misspelled wildflower and it just stuck out to me. It fit perfectly with my vision for my counseling clients to grow into the power of their truth, no matter where they are planted.

The not so fun part, the logistics of creating an entity with the state, opening up a dozen accounts for the business, and creating a website. I was a psychology major in school, not a business major or graphic web designer. It was another level of learning that I had not anticipated would take so much energy to do on my own. I focused on one step at a time and would figure out the rest as I grew into this new role of business owner.

As a daughter of immigrants from Mexico and first generation college graduate, I was already jumping through many hurdles to get a degrees, my license, and now more challenges just to realize my next goals. I know things are not meant to be easy; but damn. I did the best that I could with the information and resources I had at the time. Looking back I do not feel I would have done anything different. Through the challenges there was much room for celebration and sharing the experience with my loved ones. they supported me and cheered me on every step of the way and I am so thankful for it all.

My advice for a young professional who might be considering opening up their own practice is to go for it, even if they are afraid. One scenario is cutting back to a part time position elsewhere, and starting off with a few clients. Then make the leap, quit your old job, and work up to a full case load. All at once or little by little, there is no “right” way to engage in this adventure.

Erika, 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?

I’m a Latina bilingual counselor providing mental health services in Spanish and English in Austin, TX for the past eight years. Austin has been home since December 2016 when I moved to continue my career. Home is also 5 hours south in a border town in the Rio Grande Valley.

Growing up, I did not know what counseling or therapy was. I can recall vague mentions of something similar on TV, but never with people that looked like me. My family dealt with and processed difficult times by healing through talk and connection within the family or by keeping everything bottled up. Of course, not everything about this approach was perfect. But we persevere and manage.

My twin sister and I were the first to make it to college. I was still undecided and fumbling across different ideas by year two. After changing my major a few times, I landed in Intro to Psychology class where I first learned about counseling and psychology.

So many things made sense that semester. I found out that the ways I processed the world and what was in my head + body had names and reasons for it. I was not loca and counseling was meant for me also. Counseling was for my Latinx and BIPOC communities. That semester, I decided my career path in counseling and moved through the hurdles of obtaining multiple degrees and completing licensure exams, hours of supervision and oh so many fees. Struggling often, but moving in the direction of my goals just the same.

Now, eight years later, I provide bilingual counseling services to people of diverse backgrounds as they seek to manage symptoms of depression, anxiety, feeling stuck, stress, or life transitions. Other areas I can support clients in is to move closer to healing from experiences of trauma, such as loss, sexual violence and/or domestic violence at any point in their lives that have impacted the mind and body.

I am trained in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocess Therapy (EMDR) and Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) for more structured modalities to process trauma and manage + reduce symptoms. Along with Relational Therapy and Person-Focused Therapy, I provide inclusive therapy and through the lense of decolonizing counseling practices. In my counseling spaces, I make efforts to disrupt harmful beliefs and create room to heal from the impact of systemic violence and injustices.

Passions of mine include supporting first and second generation individuals that carry the weight of intergenerational traumas, cultural + identity conflicts from acculturation, and have been harmed by marginalization.

In the Latinx/Hispanic community, there are negative beliefs about counseling and fear “el que va decir la gente” if word got out they were going to counseling. But needing and seeking out counseling is not admitting that someone is crazy or something to be ashamed of. It’s a recognition that you do not have to figure it all out alone. That there are ways to take back control of your life. My goal is to collaborate with clients to reclaim their lives through talk and connection along with finding therapy approaches that complement the ancestral and holistic ways of healing.

Counseling is not the cure to everything. Doing the work, in and outside of sessions, can be hard. And still, many clients tell me they wish they would have started counseling sooner. Because after each session they feel better. They feel lighter. And free themselves of the weight on their backs they thought was theirs to hold alone. You, reader, deserve this too.

If you could go back in time, do you think you would have chosen a different profession or specialty?

If I am being honest, I do not know if I would be choosing the same profession quite exactly. Psychology and counseling are vast fields encompassing many professions. So I feel I could have been easily swayed to do something else. In high school and college I was very undecided in what I wanted to major in for my bachelor’s degree. Looking back, the pressure of making a career choice felt daunting and was presented as a life-long decision so I had to “choose carefully”. Now, I am aware that there is always room for more transitions across life. I have always been drawn to a helping or caregiving profession, and many times thought I would be a teacher or working with animals. I feel I could have also landed on a profession in the medical field, such as nursing like my twin sister.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

A hard lesson I have had to unlearn the grind culture mentality of capitalism that keep me feeling unworthy of rest. I have learned that I am worthy of rest because I am a human being and not a machine. I deserve rest because I am alive and not based on my productivity. Mental health issues are exacerbated by so many toxic messages and systems of society, like depression and anxiety. I strive to help myself and my clients learn and forever practice to balance and adjust patterns to allow for more rest and self-compassion.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.willflowercounseling.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/erikaesquivel.lpc/

Image Credits
Everly Jade Photography