We recently connected with Veronica Villarreal and have shared our conversation below.

Veronica, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Over the course of your career, have you seen or experienced your field completely flip-flop or change course on something?

When I finished my Master’s program, I was so burned out from working in behavioral health. By the time I graduated, I had already been working in behavioral health for over 10 years, plus my stepdad had passed away during my last semester. Needless to say, I needed a break! I chose to take a step back and went to work in a trauma hospital as a Medical Social Worker. Working in this hospital was so different than anything I had done before. I had the opportunity to work with situations that I never thought I would be open to doing, such as working with individuals/families needing hospice care, while still working with clients experiencing mental health crises, addiction, trauma, etc. I was able to look at things from a different lens and noticed the gap between medical services and behavioral health services. This refueled my passion in behavioral health work and I took over most patients’ cases that had a behavioral health need. This experience also pushed me to want to start doing therapy work as well.

Veronica, 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 an Associate Licensed Master Social Worker (LMSW) and I am therapist with, With An Open Heart LLC. I have my BA in Psychology and my Master’s in Social Work, both from Arizona State University. In the beginning of my career, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do or what populations I wanted to work with. I just knew I wanted to help people. My first job after undergrad was working in a group home with women who have severe mental illness (SMI) and it was eye opening. The women in that home struggled from addiction, hallucinations, delusions, major depression, suicidal ideations, etc., Listening to these women’s stories was fascinating. Many lived “normal” lives at one point, but now they were in this home and a few seemed to be abandoned and forgotten by their families due to their illness. In this job, I was able to work with many stakeholders, such as crisis, outpatient behavioral health teams, hospital, guardians, etc., and there were times I was very confused on the goals these stakeholders had. This made me want to gain experience within the system I was working with and not just the people. Throughout my career, I have gone to work in SMI outpatient clinics, inpatient psych hospitals, children’s behavioral health, crisis teams, detox, trauma hospital, therapy, and even in a clinic that specialized in Ketamine and TMS treatment. From these experiences, I was able to work with many different populations of people and was able to identify my niche and my passion lies in working with substance use, trauma, generational trauma, crisis de-escalation, life transitions, anxiety and stress. Within my therapy practice, I proudly work mostly with individuals who come from a Latinx cultural background and many are working to break generational cycles, starting with going to therapy in the first place!

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

I would definitely choose the same profession, but I would have chose it sooner. I do not regret anything about my experience thus far. I just wish I would have chose to be a Social Worker sooner and had finished grad school earlier than I did, so I could have been further in my career at this point.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

In the beginning of my final semester of grad school, my stepdad passed away from a bad accident. At the time I was working full time, in an internship and a full time grad student. After the accident, my grief and depression was extremely heavy. I wanted to quit everything because it did not feel right to just go on as usual. I struggled getting out bed, lacked motivation and could not stop crying. If there was ever a time I felt justified to give up, it was then. My stepdad was so supportive of everything I did and knew he would not have wanted me to give up, especially when I was so close to finishing school. After a month of nonstop crying, I chose to seek my own mental health treatment. I knew I could not get through the next few months with out extra help and I am so happy I did because 4 months after he passed away, I got my Master’s degree.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://withanopenheartllc.com/
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/with_an_open_heart_llc
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/veronica-villarreal-lmsw-b845b9b7/