Today we’d like to introduce you to Jesus Montelongo.
Hi Jesus, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I was born in Mexico and moved to the U.S. right before I started 1st grade. Before 3rd grade started, I moved to Houston and have been living here ever since. I grew up not knowing that mental health was a field that could be studied and this was not a topic that was talked about in my home or with family members. When I got to college, I thought I would go into the medical field, but I took a real interest in Psychology after taking it as an elective my 1st year. It was the first time I had some insight into how I think and what motivated me and I found myself learning more about this topic on my own. I also learned more about coping with emotions in a healthy way and gained other skills that improved my relationships with the people I cared about. As I took more classes, I heard professors speak about the work they had done with clients as therapists, and I wanted to be able to apply what I learned to benefit others. This allowed me to have a greater sense of direction, and I went on to graduate school and then became a fully licensed therapist.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
One of the first struggles was leaving my hometown where my extended family lived and not being able to spend time with them as often as I wanted to. When I 1st moved to the U.S. my parents and I would go visit family on the weekend, but we went less often after moving to Houston. I was learning a new language and was around family members from my other side of the family that I was less familiar with. There was also a larger age gap with my extended family in Houston, so it was difficult to find my place. No one in my family had gotten a degree in the U.S., so I was figuring things out as I went and made some mistakes when it came to applying to college that eventually got resolved. Once I started working as a therapist, I started to work in a variety of settings and with clients in populations that I had not gotten much training on during my time in school, so I was doing some on the job training and spoke with my supervisors when I had questions. Then, when I was starting to feel like I was figuring things out COVID hit and I went from in-person sessions only to telehealth sessions only. Now, I do both telehealth and in-person sessions and I’m continuing to work on adapting to the needs of my clients.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’m currently working with adult individuals and couples at Natural Balance Counseling in The Woodlands. I’m proud that I had a chance to work in different settings in the past like doctor’s offices, non-profit organizations, high schools and other clinics. I worked with clients who were around 7 years old all the way to seniors and my clients have also been in different phases of their life, so I was able to learn about their perspective directly from them. I currently use a mix of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Solution Focused Therapy (SF) and Education. What sets me apart now is that I’m working with clients who have successful careers and business who might not have thought that therapy was an option for them. They might have believed that only clients who had stopped working or who were on the verge or divorce ‘should’ go to therapy, but they’re finding out that it can be used to maintain their high level of performance at work and that couples who generally get along well can also use it to reduce things like petty fights, arguing in circles and misunderstanding that happen in every relationship. The point for them isn’t to fix something that’s broken, it’s to continue to learn, grow and optimize.
What are your plans for the future?
I want to continue learning more about how to effectively work with high-performing clients and to reduce the stigma about who therapy is for. When I first started working, there was more stigma in the Latino community about making a therapy appointment. Clients often stared by staying “I’m not crazy, but…” because they had only seen what tv and movies showed about mental health, so they had an exaggerated and dramatic view of the topic. Now, clients say things like “I have had so many blessings in my life so I shouldn’t complain, but….” because their life has different pressures at the top and their stressors look different than they used to. No one’s life is truly perfect even after they’ve achieved a lot of the outside metrics of success, so it’s ok to feel like something is off even when people from the outside looking in might not see the internal struggles.
Pricing:
- $150 for individual clients
- $175 couples
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.naturalbalancecounseling.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jesusnaturalbalance/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/p/Jesus-Montelongo-61587985693042/
