We recently connected with Yurilka Hernandez and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Yurilka thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear the backstory of how you established your own practice.

I started my practice during a time when I was navigating both motherhood and the emotional weight of working within large behavioral health systems. I loved my clients and communities deeply, but I kept seeing the same barriers: care was rushed, cultural context was ignored, and families were expected to adapt to systems that were never built with them in mind. I wanted to create spaces that felt like home, where healing didn’t require translation.

So I took a leap. I established my own private practice, Psychotherapy & Consultation Group Services PLLC, and later, my nonprofit, Alta Vida Wellness . I didn’t have a team or investors. I did the paperwork, the legal process, the billing systems, the space design, all of it. My first “office” was a small room with secondhand furniture and big vision. The work spoke for itself. Trust grew by word of mouth. Community built the community.

Starting the nonprofit was another layer of courage. Alta Vida was born from a belief that healing shouldn’t be a privilege, it should be accessible, culturally grounded, and rooted in dignity. I wrote the bylaws, drafted the mission, recruited the board, filed the 501(c)(3), and built programming from the ground up. It was exhausting and beautiful. I learned that leadership is not about perfection, it’s about commitment and integrity.

Challenges? Many. Balancing budgets while honoring values. Learning how to scale without losing heart. Understanding that rest is also part of resistance. But I wouldn’t undo any part of the process. If I could change one thing, I would have asked for help sooner. You don’t have to earn the right to support, you already deserve it.

My advice to someone starting their own practice or organization:
Start before you feel ready. Let your values, not fear, lead your decisions. Build slowly and intentionally. Excellence is not in how fast you grow, but in how deeply you root. And remember: the people you are meant to reach are already looking for you.

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 am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, psychotherapist, and founder of both Psychotherapy & Consultation Group Services PLLC and Alta Vida Wellness, a nonprofit dedicated to culturally rooted, community-centered mental health care. My work is deeply influenced by my own experience growing up in immigrant spaces where emotional survival was often prioritized over emotional expression. I entered the field because I wanted to create the kind of healing environments I knew our communities deserved, spaces where people could be seen fully, without shrinking, translating, or performing strength.

In my private practice, I provide therapy for adolescents and adults navigating trauma, anxiety, identity formation, family conflict, and major life transitions. I draw from psychodynamic theory, CBT, DBT, motivational interviewing, and trauma-informed care, while always centering cultural responsiveness and the therapeutic relationship. I work with clients who want therapy that feels human, grounded, and safe, not clinical in the cold sense, but clinical in the attuned sense.

Alta Vida Wellness was born from the belief that wellness should not be a luxury. Through Alta Vida, we offer accessible mental health services, support groups, culturally tailored wellness programming, and partnerships with schools and community organizations. Our focus is to make healing feel familiar, like sitting in your auntie’s living room, like hearing your story reflected back to you, like finally exhaling.

What sets my work apart is that I approach healing with cultural intimacy. I don’t require people to explain their cultural identity before we begin. I understand the layers, the roles, the expectations, the silence, the survival, the brilliance, the grief, the joy. I honor the person and the lineage that raised them.

What I am most proud of is that I built all of this, both the practice and the nonprofit, by myself, step by step, from the ground up. No investors, no template, just conviction and community.

The core of my work is simple: Healing should feel like coming home to yourself

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

Managing a team starts with remembering that people are human before they are staff. I prioritize psychological safety, transparency, and genuine relationship-building. In our work, especially in mental health and community care, burnout is real, and so is emotional labor. I make space for my team to be human: to have bad days, to ask for support, to rest. We hold space for one another the same way we hold space for our clients and communities.

I’m intentional about communicating clearly, setting realistic expectations, and checking in regularly, not just about performance, but about wellbeing. I don’t believe in leadership through fear or pressure. I believe in leadership through trust, modeling, and integrity. When people feel valued and seen, they show up with more creativity, presence, and pride.

High morale comes from belonging. When a team feels connected to the mission, and knows their contribution matters, they don’t just work. They care. And that is what sustains us through the hard days.

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

There was a period early in my journey when I was building both my private practice and Alta Vida Wellness at the same time I had just become a mother. I was navigating sleepless nights, breastfeeding between client sessions, studying for my doctorate, and writing grant applications at my kitchen table while my daughter napped in my arms.

There were moments I questioned whether I could hold all of it. The emotional labor of my clients, the administrative weight of running a business, the cultural responsibility I carry as a Latina therapist showing up for community, and the very real fatigue of motherhood. But what kept me going was the vision. I wasn’t building just for myself. I was building for the women like me who grew up holding everything in silence, who never saw care modeled with softness.

My resilience showed up in small ways: showing up for one more session, writing one more email, trusting that what I was building mattered even when no one could see it yet. I learned that resilience is not about being unbreakable, it’s about returning to yourself again and again with compassion.

Today, when clients and families walk into Alta Vida Wellness and feel seen and safe, I am reminded why I kept going. The work was never just about the business. It was about building a place where healing could feel like home.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.altavidawellness.org
• Instagram: altavidaw
• Linkedin: yurilka-hernandez