Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Nicole Serrano, LMFT Therapist and CEO. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Nicole Serrano, LMFT, we’ve been so fortunate to work with so many incredible folks and one common thread we have seen is that those who have built amazing lives for themselves are also often the folks who are most generous. Where do you think your generosity comes from?
When reflecting on generosity, I like to think that generosity can be as small as a smile or sharing of a resource, to as big as monetary donations or donation of time and anything in between. The first image that popped in my mind when considering this question was my grandmother. The epitome of generosity being role modeled to me has been my belated grandmother Lorenza Garcia. She was always so generous with her time, her help, her food and energy. She ensured that her loved ones or people she cared for were somehow taken care of. Wether this was through a meal, packing leftovers, donating her own funds, taking her time and energy to help care for others, she was generous. I find that through generosity we can spread joy, care and even a moment of gratitude or happiness.
This translates to the work we do at NS Counseling & Wellness Services. We make every effort possible to network and connections that will allow us opportunities to offer our therapy and wellness services to the community at an affordable price or probono. We hope to expand these opportunities in the future through grants or scholarships so we can continue to provide these services at a lower fee or free cost.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
At NS Counseling & Wellness Services, we have been diligently working on expanding to be able to provide more services and hours to our community for therapy services. We have also however been working on really growing our Wellness side of services. We have an incredible wellness coach who has worked in community mental health for a decade with at risk youth, their parents and family members and now has been trained in providing various wellness services. From Sound healing and tuning forks, yoga and meditation to EFT (emotion focused tapping), breath work and various classes for the community, we have been lucky to be able to give our community the opportunity to work on expanding their self care and grounding tool boxes to use whenever needed and to support their mental health journeys. We have partnered with Azusa Public Library, and several local small business’ to provide opportunities to the public to access these services free of charge or at a low fee. We are able to offer these same services to corporations in order to promote mental wellness in the workforce as well. We do our best to try to address the several needs that we have as humans, including even partnering with another local practice to offer Free Clothing drives where we have been able to provide clothing, shoes, bags, baby and children items, toys, books and small appliances to individuals and families in need.
We are very excited for the continued growth in the range of services we can offer and encourage readers to keep an eye out for special events, retreats, or even opportunities to sponsor a wellness event to spread this mental wellness growth to the community!
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Looking back, I believe perseverance, experience in community mental health, and knowing how to rely on your resources are the most impactiful in my journey. As a therapist, my work in community mental health has been the bones upon what gave me insight in to what community needed and how I could get creative and offer this to all in our community that did not qualify for many of the services offered due to insurance or income or a variety of other reasons. There are amazing services out there that most people cannot access because of the red tape and requirements surrounding many programs. We are doing our best to offer these services out of pocket or probono if possible to give our community access to these resources and help without any restrictions or red tape. None of this would have been possible without learning about the various types of work and programs there are in community mental health however.
The perseverance and knowing how to rely on my resources however is what has carried me along my journey, no matter what chapter I have been in. There are many different seasons in one’s career and when things are difficult or seem draining the best thing I could do was to persevere, and once things got to a better place I could clearly evaluate if I felt there needed to be a change of direction or if I was ready to continue moving forward. However getting through the difficult times are always made possible by leaning on your resources. Resources can be the emotional support from like minded individuals, mentors, friends and supportive family. Resources can also include working on self care, therapy, or reaching out for help to someone for advice or coaching with business. If there is anything I could encourage those on their journey to do, would be to not hesitate to reach out to network, speak to like minded people or people with experience. It is ok to learn from others, you will learn what you do and do not want to do. I share all the time with others the lessons I have learned along the way which I hope can help make their journey a bit easier.
How can folks who want to work with you connect?
Here at NS Counseling & Wellness Services, we are certainly in a time of growth and expansion. The hope for this growth is to be able to provide services to the community for low cost or free cost without any requirements that usually prevent them from qualifying in state or government funded programs. So if there is any organization, business, or person that would like to collaborate or sponsor wellness services or therapy services for their own organization, or for the community we would love to chat! You can contact the founder of NS Counseling and Wellness Services directly at nicoleserrano.mft@gmail.com.
Here is to rest, healing, exploration and growth along our respective and community journeys!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.nscounseling.org
- Instagram: @nicoleserranolmft
- Facebook: @nscounselingCA
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicoleserranomft/
Image Credits
self taken , flyer created by azusa public library
