Meet Melissa Padilla | Art Therapist and Licensed Child Care Provider

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

Hi Melissa, what inspires you?
I was inspired by my son, Mateo Christopher Padilla. As a first time mom, I was faced with many emotions and decisions to make after having Mateo. During postpartum I struggled to balance recovery, marriage, work and life balance. I aimed at honoring my postpartum journey, mental health and continuing to support others as an art therapist. Mateo, helped me see life with a different lense, one that opened up new opportunities and creative outlets. He helped me dream of becoming a business owner and creating something special that merged wellness and care services for families in our community. That’s how Padilla Wellness and Care Service came to fruition. The care part covers the dream I had of providing quality early childhood child care to families in my community. A place where safety, creativity, and learning take place honoring the kingdom of childhood. This place is called Colorsitos daycare, located in Bellflower, CA. At Colorsitos we focus on using creative outlets to foster learning in early childhood. We incorporate music, art, gardening and social emotional learning to care and nurture children.
As a Licensed Marital and Family Therapist and Regestered Art Therapist I envisioned continuing to provide therapeutic services to children and their families. As I believe early intervention is import in helping our children build resiliency and positive mental health. Becoming a mother, increased my passion for working with children by providing creative outlets to express, explore and manage emotion through the use of art, play and music. As play is a child’s first language. To achieve this part of my vision ( the wellness part) I am currently providing mental health services using Alma.
Mateo has been my driving force, my number one cheerleader, and my strength. He came into this world and said, “Dream ma’ma, dream. You are a creator!”

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
My love for art started as a little girl. Growing up in south central Los Angeles, in a low income house hold, and experiencing early adverse childhood experiences led me to find a safe space in my imagination. That’s when I discovered art, box after box of crayons I drew, created, and dreamed of my own world. A world filled with love, peace and laughter. And, of-course at that time toys, ice cream and more toys lol. I discovered that there was no right or wrong in art making because I was the creator. Art helped me express my self freely with no fear of judgement and it helped me cope with my reality. This passion for creativity grew as a got older perusing different avenues that allowed me to use my creativity. Always remembering, how art helped little me become resilient. As a former elementary school teacher working for the public school system in the south central Los Angeles area I noticed children often experienced behavior problems in the classroom. When assessing further these children were also experiencing early childhood adverse experiences impacting their mental health and behavior. I then remembered what helped me when I was their age, ART! So I began incorporating art making in academic lessons. What I witnessed was amazing the children experiencing behavior challenges in the classes began to improve academic performance and behavior. They had found a creative outlet to express themselves. This intrigued me and encouraged me to look further. I became interested in learning how art making improves mental health. Which lead me to my journey of becoming a Licensed Marital Family Therapist with specialized clinical training in Art Therapy. I was eager to learn about the correlation and found a wonderful art therapy masters program at Loyola Marymount University. I fell in love with the field and now honored to say I serve many families and children in a therapeutic setting. Fast forward to now, for my business, I envisioned merging all my education and passions and created Colorsitos a child care service that focuses on using creative outlets to foster learning, growth and promote positive mental health in early childhood.

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.
Breakfast at Horchateria, start of with chilaquiles and a cafe de olla. If there is room a churro and mazapan concha lol.
Hike- El Dorado Nature Center with a picnic after.
Dinner at BJs , avocado eggs roll, burger and a nice cold IPA.
Paramount Drive in for a movie.
Placita Olvera for shopping.
Dodger Game
Night Life – The Edison, Cicadia, 80s Bar The anew Wave

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Wow, this is a wonderful moment for reflection. I am blessed and grateful to have such an amazing support group that has encouraged me throughout this journey of opening up my own business.

To begin shoutout to God, my wonderful husband and son. Shout out to My family, each person has contributed to my success different ways. From painting buildings, to cleaning toys, moving furniture, decorating, guiding me, connecting me to resources, cleaning, motivating me, and caring for my son while I worked on taking steps towards opening my business.

Shout out to Friends, they have donated toys and furniture to help me start the childcare. They have mentored, encouraged and motivated me to continue. Shout out to my neighbors as they supported us in working on fixing building issues and painting.

And a big special shout out to my sister, Emily Rangel who painted the murals at Colorsitos ( child care location) making our space a special, colorful and playful space for the many children to come. Could not have done it with you.

Thank you to every single person that has helped my family and I see this dream come true. Gracias!

Website: https://Colorsitos.com

Instagram: @colorsitoscc

Other: https://secure.helloalma.com/providers/melissa-padilla/

Image Credits
Enrique Torres