We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Lupita Martinez a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Lupita thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?

My parents have always been my biggest cheerleaders despite them not fully understanding what a therapist does. They’ve always taught me the importance of hard work, diligence, and having a goal-oriented “what’s next” mentality. When I was younger, my brothers and I would wake up at very early hours of the morning to go with our parents to sell at the swap meet. I remember we would drive what felt like hours from Inglewood to Pomona to make it to our space before 7:30am. I remember being a kindergartener and having the swap meet make up a lot of my core memories. One of the memories that I revisit a lot is being extra shy and embarrassed of our life at the swap meet. A lot of my classmates got to enjoy their weekends as children whereas we were taught something equally, which I didn’t understand back then. Even though we didn’t get to run or play on the weekends, we were taught the value of money, the importance of haggling ahaha, the need to recycle, the convenience of meal prepping, and so many more lessons. For my siblings and I, this molded us into the people we are now and we don’t take the hard work for granted.

I remember having to walk to every space in the swap meet with my plastic bag because my job was to pick up soda cans for recycling. I recall feeling very shy but then slowly warming up to the idea of being assertive in asking for the recyclables. I also remember my parents creating a bed for me inside the van for the long commutes home. They would try their best in making the space comfortable and magical because that’s exactly how I remember it. I remember we’d drive by horses and custom painted mail boxes and those things would pump me up as a kid. I also remember how special it was to have a good day of sales because that meant we get to splurge on a burger for dinner on the way home.

Looking back at my upbringing, these core memories make up how I not only create my business goals but also the way I provide services to the clients that choose to work with me. I understand the value of hard work but also understand the NEED to work. I also understand the hardships that we experience when we come from underprivileged backgrounds, but I also understand that joy can come from driving by horses and looking at custom painted mail boxes.

Lupita, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am Lupita Martinez and I am a mental health therapist that works in the city of Norwalk, CA. I provide virtual therapy to anyone living in California; I am also EMDR trained and focus most of my practice on this modality because I see first-hand how it helps the clients I work with. I also attend therapy myself because I see the importance in understanding the client’s experience first-hand as well as understand that we all can benefit from therapy at some point in our lives.

A lot of the people that I work with come from families that have had similar backgrounds as my own (whether it be because of the financial or educational limitations of our parents, or their legal status and the implications that brings to the family unit). Often times, these are young professionals of color who struggle with finding their place/finding their voice in professional settings because of the lack of representation, the way our world impacts their lives, as well as their own struggles with self-doubt.

I am proud to be a first-generation Chicana and first in my family to have my own business. Some of the topics that I work with people on is the inevitable impostor phenomenon (better known as impostor syndrome). Impostor syndrome is the inability to believe that our success legitimate or deserved because we feel as if we’re impostors. Those who experience impostor syndrome feel their successes are because of luck, being at the right place at the right time, or because of someone else’s doing. And more importantly, those with impostor syndrome also fear being caught as a fraud; they often struggle with perfectionism, procrastination, as well as self-doubt.

Part of what I do is assist them in identifying what their self-talk looks like by dafault, and we work on improving it. Additionally, we also build awareness between their experience and upbringing to their experience with impostor syndrome to begin to process these core memories that ignite the self-doubt. We utilize EMDR to process these memories or incidences in order for these experience to no longer hold as much power when it comes to their experience with self-doubt and self-criticism.

There’s nothing quite exciting than to see clients begin to see themselves outside of their work; nothing is more exciting than seeing them begin to prioritize joy, rest, and self-compassion.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

One of the most effective strategies I’ve noticed for myself is utilizing social media to “put a face” to the brand that is “Therapy of the Sun.” I’ve noticed that the posts with the most engagement are the posts that are genuine and from the heart- the one’s the share about my story and why I work with the type of clients I work with. Although the strategy of prioritizing posting to maintain “relevance” or focus on “strategy” and “the algorithm” is valid, I have been able maintain my business afloat and profitable over the last 5 years from genuine posting and networking with other clinicians.

I enjoy posting and the creative aspect of social media when it comes to my brand, however I don’t want to “have to” post every day or every 2-3 days. I also post when its convenient to me and my schedule, not when it’ll receive the most engagement. Ultimately, what I’m noticing is that when you have your own village of professionals backing you up, community is what keeps you afloat. So don’t be afraid to meet other people who do the same thing you do, or even other business owners who don’t do the same thing you do. There is no room for competition in any industry, there are plenty of people around that are your ideal clients as long as you know who that ideal client is. Be clear who that client is, and the creative aspect of your job will get easier. The posts will feel more fine-tuned. So to wrap it all up in a nice little bow for everyone, here are some of my strategies:

1. Be clear of your ideal client
2. Use free marketing such as IG, TikTok, LinkedIn, Google Business
3. Build genuine connections with other people in and out of your industry (meet them just to meet, not because you want something)
4. Create when you’re feeling inspired/motivated to create, don’t create just because you feel the “need” to. If social media doesn’t work for you, find other ways that feel good for you (youtube, flyers, tabling, etc.)

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I used to work at a non-profit where I was overworked and underpaid. Since I was Spanish speaking (and those types of therapists are pretty rare), I would often have a lot more clients than my monolingual English speaking counterparts. For an additional $1,450 a year, this bilingual therapist felt like she was being punished because she was working 50-60 hours a week just to make sure all her clients were being served and that her notes were submitted on time. This amount of work was not healthy for me and I soon realized my body was no longer excited to go back to work despite being passionate about the client’s I served. My body would immediately go into panic the night before work, I would cry and be in disbelief that I studied all those years to live this type of life where I left to work at 7am only to get back home at 8pm, eat dinner, and go back to sleep at 10pm. I felt cheated from a life I was promised all those years. I had grown up being told that going to school was the answer to not having to overwork but it felt like a complete sham.

I soon realized I could no longer work the same; I tried creating boundaries at work but it was too late. The system felt bigger and much more powerful and me saying “no” to another client was now seen as me being “resistant.” That system was not built for individuals with a voice. I was once told by a higher management position that their place of business (a non-profit) was not meant for me (interns) to grow, it was a place for me to get my training and leave (they used the image of a revolving door). Luckily this was at my last meeting with this manager as I was trying to negotiate a higher salary or position but was met with a “thank you for your hard work” goodbye. It was still a year after I realized these places were going to continue to work me to the ground but I finally made it out. I was seeing a therapist at the time who was supporting me with the stress of my work. The funny thing is that I loved doing what I did, I loved working with the clients I served. It was the administrative portion of my job, the managers I worked with, and the unrealistic expectations that I was up against, that led me to burnout.

My therapist at the time convinced me to take a leave, a short-term disability leave, because my symptoms were no longer manageable. I couldn’t sleep, I barely ate (because of how much I felt I was drowning in work), and I cried before bed constantly. My therapist CONVINCED me, yes, she CONVINCED me; it was difficult for me to step out of the system/ step out of that supply and demand cycle to realize how unhealthy it was for me. I owe my newfound skills of self-care and the foundational goals of my practice (of working to live versus living to work), to this therapist. I left the non-profit sector but continue to serve my community as best as I can. I make it a point to provide affordable rates when I can, as well as provide person-centered approaches to each of my clients because they deserve top quality of care. I started Therapy of the Sun because we are all people of the sun, we all came from indigenous roots, and we all deserve to have amplified voices that cater to our needs as humans first. I now see that, I didn’t before.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.therapyofthesun.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/therapyofthesun
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lupitamartinezlmft/