Meet Marjory Vazquez | Psychologist & Life Coach

We had the good fortune of connecting with Marjory Vazquez and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Marjory, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
It started from a desire to one, better serve my clients in therapy, and two, have more work-life balance. I realized early on that when working for an organization there is always benchmarks and timelines that need to be met. As much as I would like to think that those organizational pressures do not impact the care I give to patients, it does! It is easy to get burned out and have big caseloads of therapy patients assigned to you when working for any organization. This creates a system in which you are trying to “rush people out the door” as quickly as possible. I wanted to do therapy in a way that did not feel rushed and where I was truly able to meet patients where they are at and go at their pace. I believe that true change lies in individualizing care for each patient and that is hard to do when working at a big organization. In addition, I was also wanting more work life balance. The gift of having my own private practice is that I get to decide when I see patients and when I don’t. I also get the opportunity to call in patients that are aligned with my areas of focus.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
What sets me apart from others is that I address therapy with a holistic and somatic approach. There is a lot that can be accomplished in individual therapy but even more if we see therapy as one piece of a client’s healing journey. Unlike old school theories that taught therapist not to share anything about their life, I share and bring in my own identities to therapy (when appropriate). I help my clients to become grounded so that they can tap into their own intuition and inner wisdom. Bringing in a client’s spirituality and experience in their own body is not something commonly discussed when working for an organization. These are all aspects that I like to bring in and pay special attention to with my patients.

I decided to start a business after having a life coach and realizing that the life I dreamed of having could not be accomplished while working for an organization. What made starting a private practice difficult is that as therapist we never get any training on how to go into private practice or how to run a business. I had to figure all that out on my own while still having regular job. In addition, I would get in my own way by allowing self-doubt to take over. What made the process easier was reaching out to other colleagues who had made the jump to private practice. Having a life/business coach also made the process go much smoother and helped me overcome those self-limiting beliefs! What I learned along the way is, how important it is to: ask for help, rely on my community, and to avoid re-inventing the wheel when there is no need to! Currently, what I am most excited about is expanding my services to include life coaching. I love doing therapy and seeing the growth of patients during the therapeutic process but am also excited to help people thrive to new levels through life coaching. Expanding my services to include life coaching will enable me to serve people from all over the world! While I can only do therapy with individuals living in California, life coaching clients can live outside of California and in any country!

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
One of the things I love most about Southern California is all the food options! Some of my favorite places to eat are The Boiling Crab, Ocha Classic (Thai restaurant), Wang Cho Korean BBQ, Kalaveras, Tempo Cantica, and King Taco. And of course, if someone was coming from out of state, I would make sure to take them to In-N-Out. Ocha Classic is in the Los Angeles area, but the other places can be found in multiple locations across Southern California. For a nicer scenery and drinks I would take people to: The Standard, Perch, Angel City Brewery and Las Perlas in Los Angeles, or Ballas Point Brewing in Long Beach. For those coffee and pastry lovers, I would make sure to take them to Tierra Mia Coffee and Porto’s Bakery and Café.

It wouldn’t be a trip to Southern California without going to the beach! A must see would be the Santa Monica Pier. Growing up I used to go to Huntington Beach a lot with my family and in college while attending UC Irvine, I would often go to Newport Beach. Those two beaches bring back nostalgic memories, but I would also take someone to other beautiful beaches such as Laguna Beach or near the Malibu areas. Other places that I would love to take people to for activities are Da Poetry Lounge for open mic night, The Getty Museum, LACMA, and dancing for salsa and/or bachata at Stevens Steakhouse. Lastly, I would take someone from out of town on a hike to the Hollywood Sign on the Runyon Canyon Trail.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I would like to give a shoutout to all of the mentors and friends I made during graduate school. Particularly, Dr. Delgado-Romero my advisor from my doctoral program at the University of Georgia (UGA). It was at UGA where my entrepreneur spirit was first acknowledged and cultivated. Prior to attending my doctoral program at the University of Georgia, I had informed my advisor of my interest in doing therapy in Spanish. At the time, there was no Spanish speaking services for therapy where my graduate school was located. My advisor Dr. Delgado-Romero assured me that together we would start a bilingual therapy clinic in Athens, GA. Soon after starting graduate school at UGA, Dr. Delgado-Romero and I started a bilingual clinic during my first year of the doctoral program. Looking back, this was truly my first-time dabbling in private practice work. I was able to learn a little of how a private practice/non-profit worked and was really part of creating the infrastructure for a clinic that is still ongoing and has grown immensely since my time in graduate school. I would like to thank Dr. Delgado-Romero for entrusting me to go on this journey with him and really being the first person to point out to me that I had an entrepreneurial spirit.

Website: www.thesanahouse.com

Instagram: @thesanahouse

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marjory-vazquez-6a5a1b70

Image Credits
Lara Kaur (headshot)