Meet Alissa Camacho, Ms, Lpc, Ccatp

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Alissa Camacho, Ms, Lpc, Ccatp a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alissa, we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?

Confidence and self-esteem are not a given in this life. Sometimes we’re lucky to have it, other times we’re proud to have earned the heck out of it. For me, I’d like to think I did some major soul searching to feel confident and trust in who I am today. When I was little, I was mostly oblivious to how quickly someone or something can break your self-worth down. It wasn’t until middle school that I realized who I was, where I came from, and what that looked like next to my peers. I was awkward, and I was taught by my parents to stay in line as much as possible. I was expected to fit in, and I wanted that for myself too. Some days that proved to be harder than others.

From pre-kinder to 12th grade, I attended private catholic school. It was the greatest sacrifice my parents made for us. Every fiber of their being told them it was what was best for my sister and I. My whole self wouldn’t change it for anything, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t wonder what it would have felt like to know someone living through the same challenges as me. Many days, home life was tough, and I grew more and more uncertain, lacking confidence, and fantasizing about my future. Most days from my pre-teen years through college I felt different, a little anxious, and a little sad. In high school, the more I learned about psychology, the more I understood myself. Thus, my plan to become a psychotherapist was set in motion. Off to college I went, insecure, hopeful, and afraid. I decided to start therapy when I realized I had lost sight of who I was. Gone were the days of optimism and hope for the future. They were replaced with self-destruction and the realization that I had put my worth aside to let my environment control me. Starting therapy was the beginning of my self-discovery. I realized how much my anxiety had dictated my day-to-day existence, and I learned about the beauty of being in control of my own actions.

Where once stood a young girl who couldn’t trust herself to make the right decisions, there was now a grown woman who had walked the path to understanding her past. It was a bridge that led her to the many lessons learned and the space for confidence to thrive. The grown woman started graduate school with plenty of uncertainty about her capacity to succeed, but also the refusal to give in to the fear that maybe she wasn’t smart enough. And because of her self-discovery and the appreciation for how far she had come, she graduated. The grown woman became a licensed psychotherapist, worked harder than she thought she ever could, and opened her own private practice. That’s me, I’m the grown woman. My confidence and self-esteem have come a very long way. They are steady, but not without regular check-ins with myself to remind me how I got here: lots of therapy, family, friends, and challenging myself.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

As a psychotherapist, I’m very proud of what I do. I exist each day knowing that the work I do has very strong meaning, not only to me, but to the people who seek support from me and trust in me to help them discover who they are underneath the struggle. I specialize in anxiety, self-esteem, and relationships. I didn’t land upon these areas of specialization by happenstance. In many ways, they found me on my own journey of growth. Being an anxious person myself, I’m no stranger to the struggle. It’s what makes it possible for me to give empathy, build rapport, and guide others to self-discovery. In this constantly changing world, being able to offer individual therapy and couples therapy has felt increasingly important. These days, offering these services has become much more accessible. I’m able to offer virtual therapy to clients all across the state of Texas, which helps bridge the gap that has long existed in mental health services. I also offer in-person therapy once a week for those who struggle with spending more time behind a computer screen, an entirely understandable struggle in our tech heavy world. And while technology, specifically social media, is very complicated, these days it’s become more of a priority to me to join that scene as a therapist to show others who I am. It has allowed me to let others see my sense of humor in the face of struggle, to tell them tidbits of what therapy with me has to offer to their internal dialogue, and to tell them about what they might be missing out on in the land of psychotherapy. It’s not a solve-all, as nothing is, but it’s a starting point to accessing the hearts and minds of the many people who are feelings lost with themselves.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Perseverance, self-compassion, and passion. Perseverance is a quality I didn’t know I had until I realized I had no other choice but to persevere. Realizing how crucial it was to my journey forced me to brush up on it, and with haste. Self-compassion served me well when I had moments of doubt. I, like most humans, questioned my ability to do things from time to time. Self-checks helped me take a pause and remind myself how challenging the journey has been, how hard I have worked, and to give myself some grace if and when I made a mistake. Passion was my driving force. I would have been nowhere without the passion to share my knowledge, love, and experience with mental health. The passion for mental health was there before mental health was a part of my vocabulary. It remains the very thing that keeps me going.

For folks on their own journey, follow the path that suites you. Guidance is important, but so is trusting yourself. They often say that comparison is the thief of joy. It’s a wonderful thing to feel motivated by the success of others, but it’s even more wonderful to feel that motivation and choose to proceed on YOUR very own terms, with YOUR strengths in mind, and with YOUR passion. Don’t compare yourself to a life you did not live. Choose YOU first.

Who is your ideal client or what sort of characteristics would make someone an ideal client for you?

The clients I work with are usually struggling with high levels of self-doubt and excessive worrying. They are usually struggling in their relationships with members of their family, their partner/spouse, their friends, or sometimes even their colleagues. They may also find it difficult to understand or express themselves using feeling words. Sometimes their thoughts may be jumbled up or unclear to them, making it hard to trust themselves to make sound decisions. It’s common for their upbringing to play a role in the challenges they are facing as adults, sometimes in a really small way and other times in a really big way.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Lili Molina-Moore

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