Meet Josué
I am a Mexican American therapist originally from Los Angeles. Growing up as a biracial Latino, I struggled with navigating questions about racial identity, internalized racism, lack of belonging in groups and relationships, and managing different sets of cultural expectations. I’m passionate about working with clients who experience similar challenges.
I’m a big advocate of self-compassion and use this to help people navigate burnout, perfectionism, low self-esteem, and self-criticism. Self-compassion is not about making excuses for ourselves or being lazy; it is about building resiliency and improving the relationship with ourselves!
I also enjoy work with individuals of any gender identity, however, I have most experience working with a variety of issues and goals involving masculinity and male identity. Please note that this experience is not exclusive to cisgender males as I also work with trans men, gender fluid, or non-binary people who may struggle with aspects of their masculine identities.
I received my Doctorate of Clinical Psychology from Pacific University in Hillsboro, OR. I completed my undergraduate degree at the University of La Verne in La Verne, CA. I completed my doctoral internship at University of Illinois at Chicago Counseling Center and my post-doctoral residency at LifeStance Health in Portland, OR.
My priority is to create a safe space for you by respecting your personhood and your unique intersectionality. I strive to maintain inclusivity, cultural humility, and sex positivity by continuously practicing my own self-reflection and exposing myself to new cultures and people.
I provide therapy from a collaborative and integrative approach centered on a relational and multicultural framework. The backbone of my approach lies within Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). My work focuses on creating meaning in my clients’ lives. I work to provide a deeper understanding how rigid and disruptive patterns of thoughts, behaviors, and relationships are impacted by contextual and cultural factors while balancing short-term, solution focused needs with long-term, insight-oriented therapy. I emphasize self-compassion and changing the relationship with yourself.
In couple’s therapy, I utilize Emotion Focused Therapy (EFT) to promote understanding attachment and the role of emotion in communication, as well as using ACT to help couples take action guided by their personal values.
My Approach
Mission and Values
I am committed to supporting my community and working to make the world a better place. To put my money where my mouth is, each quarter I will donate 5% of business revenue to support causes I believe in. Here are a few of my chosen causes I will be donating to during 2024:
If you have any suggestions of causes you would like me to support, or have any feedback about the causes I have chosen here, please contact me to share your thoughts!
Birch Community Services supports communities by providing groceries, household items, and financial literacy classes to individuals and families in Portland, OR. They also support other local nonprofit agencies and food pantries each week! Click here to learn more about their mission and impact!
The Honeybee Health Coalition brings together professionals from a wide range of fields to help promote health of honeybees. According to their website, “Approximately 1 in 3 bites of the food we eat every day relies on honey bee pollination services to some degree. Our healthy livelihoods are impacted because many of the nutritious fruits and vegetables we enjoy require honey bee pollination.” Click here to learn more about why honeybees are important and what the Coalition is doing to help!