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

Susana, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about serving the underserved.

Shielding Hearts is an evidenced based program that follows the social emotional learning guidelines. Children require guidance and support due to:

a) losing a loved one unexpectedly or witnessing a loved one battle terminal illness; b) divorce; c) financial strain within the home; or d) any other changes within the family dynamics.

Children in underprivileged areas do not receive adequate support. The ratio is four out of five children today are suffering in silence.

Our program equips each child a skill set that will aid them for a lifetime!

Susana, 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?

A person can feel inspired to want to make a difference int he world but unfortunately that desire usually fades away due to the constraints of an individual’s time and responsibilities. I have been driven to help people since a very early age. I have mentioned before that I grew up in a small city, McAllen, Texas to be exact. It’s a city near the Mexican border and most people never knew we existed. It created a strong passion not to have my ideas and vision fall on death ears. This led me to pursue my education and obtain a Master’s in Clinical psychology. My program specialized in marriage and family therapy. The family dynamics is the core of everyone’s being. Unfortunately, many individuals myself included grow up being affected by emotional distress in the home. You don’t realize the impact until you are older, and it usually shapes you in a negative manner. I believed that when a person mistreats you, takes advantage of you, or hurts you was a form of love. I was very naive and tolerated a lot of psychological, verbal, and physical abuse until I didn’t. My education provided me the tools to empower myself to not only recover from my emotional wounds but to support others. The passion I bring to each session today is one from a perspective of a survivor and a person is now living a healthy life and loving themselves with endless possibilities.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

When you decide to become a business owner it is the most difficult task you will take on. The challenges stack up against you from day one. For me to continue to stay on my path after many individuals have felt the need to discourage me is about one’s belief in themselves. You must embrace yourself worth and know that your expertise is a unique one because there is no one else in the universe who can do what you do. It’s not possible. Therefore, if there is only one of you choose to stand out and rise above all the challenges and put one foot in the front of the other and don’t ever look back!

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

One can easily become discouraged but if you do the research, you can find your initial capital to branch out. There are grants, business loans, and investors. I believe for every No one receives it leads you to the Yes that one needs to get funded. Perseverance was definitely a key factor for me. I can honestly say that funding my business has required for me to make a lot of sacrifices. I do so proudly. I was a care giver to both my parents and when you watch a loved one transition it changes your perspective on life. What you thought you needed; tangible items become irrelevant. I simplified my life and I decide that anything I could contribute in a monetary sense would be to invest in changing children’s lives. Not only supporting children through grief and loss but to empower their parents, guardians, and caregivers with the knowledge to improve the grief dialogue at home. I work and see client’s privately and contract myself when the opportunity presents itself. Taking on different projects helps to not only grow my business but leads to different opportunities.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.shieldinghearts.org
• Instagram: @shieldinghearts
• Facebook: Shielding Hearts Organization
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/susana-morell-cgrs-999b1988/
• Twitter: @shieldheartsorg
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=shielding+hearts