We were lucky to catch up with Laura Aguirre recently and have shared our conversation below.

Laura, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you share an important lesson you learned in a prior job that’s helped you in your career afterwards?

One job I had in the past was working with pastors, priests, and people living religious life struggling with their mental health. In many cultures, these are people who are held in the highest respect and are authority figures. I was also taught to regard them in a position higher than myself. To challenge them is not the norm. Working with them, I learned that they also struggle with human issues. I learned how to reach people in this position and help them address their mental health. It was through this experience I learned to be confident in my profession. I became more confident in working with couples and families in need. This experience also helped me learn how to advocate for others, as many clients had to go back to the environment that led to them struggling with their mental health. I use this to help others find the confidence in themselves and the power to voice their needs.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I grew up seeing many people suffer from their mental health. I also saw a lot of generational hurts from dysfunctional family patterns. I also saw people wanting to incorporate faith in their healing.
As a Catholic counselor, I help individuals and couples heal from past experiences and gain the tools they need to move forward by incorporating evidence-based research and tools with faith teachings that align with my clients. I help couples and families trying to revitalize, strengthen, or heal relationships, and individuals who have an untold story, suffer in silence, and feel lonely, sad, stuck, afraid, and hopeless.
My main focus is to ensure that every client is met where they are in their season of life and to help each person feel heard and accepted. To be an effective counselor, I utilize a family systems approach that focuses on relational patterns to create positive and long-lasting change by offering valuable insight. I also use a solution-focused lens that meets your specific goals and needs to identify the strengths necessary to be successful. All while incorporating Catholic-Christian faith for those who wish to have it as part of their healing journey.
I am proud to be able to blend the power of faith with the evidenced-based practices of therapy. This has helped heal many people from wounds they carry and strengthen relationships with those around them.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Being truly authentic. I do not promise miracles but I do promise I will be with my clients on their journey. This is something I tell every client I ever had. Clients who come to a session may have already heard the guarantee that their problems will be fixed quickly. I cannot promise that because it wouldn’t be true. But I can help give the tools that help the client get where they need to go. This, and integrating Catholic-Christian faith in my sessions, has led people to know who I am and the work I do.

Putting training and knowledge aside, what else do you think really matters in terms of succeeding in your field?

As mentioned, I incorporate faith in my sessions. One of the core values of the faith practice is the importance of family unity. As a second-generation immigrant, I see what trauma can happen to immigrants, as well as the effects of it on the family. One of those instances is the separation between family members. I see the importance of keeping a family together. A training that has helped me in my field for this population is conducting forensic evaluations for immigration cases. This is one of the ways I can help serve the immigrant population to help keep a family together and address mental health issues that stem from immigration trauma. I work with immigration lawyers and their clients in these cases to help prevent a family from being separated. By providing these forensic evaluations, I can offer a small piece that helps families stay together.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.beginagaincc.com
• Instagram: @beginagaincounselingtx

Image Credits

N/A