Today we’d like to introduce you to Lizette Vasquez-Pinto.
Hi Lizette, 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.
Ooof…my story…makes me feel like it has to be so grand…the pressure. I always say I’m a small-town girl. I was born and raised in Tomball. I love my small town, and I always tell those around me that I’ll be the mayor of Tomball one day. That’s how much I love it. I come from a very humble family of hard workers and close bond with one another, always showing support in whatever ways they can. The greatest qualities I received from my parents were their work ethic, the importance of knowledge, and the importance of serving others with our strengths, qualities, and capabilities. I knew from a very young age that one of my strengths was my communication…ask my elementary teachers from Lakewood; that was usually my only behavior mark. As I got older my strengths included building relationships and connection and LEARNING. I’m a lifelong learner, I have always loved school, research and writing. I graduated from Tomball High School, and at the time, there was a high demand for bilingual teachers, so I decided to start there with my bachelor’s from Sam Houston State, knowing that later I would work towards my master’s and eventually, I would be going for my doctorate. During my career as a teacher in Tomball, I had amazing mentors, one of them being Dr. Valerie Petrzelka was the one that help push me towards my master’s quicker. Thanks, Val. I saw a great need in my kiddos and wanted to help not just academically but also with their emotional and mental health. I received my master’s from St. Thomas University in School Counseling. While in the program, I felt a push towards wanting to study more towards clinical counseling and decided to continue my education. In the work that I am blessed to do I found my passion and my greatest strength that I could serve and share with my community. I competed my 3000 hours for full licensure as an LPC and opened up my own practice, The Therapy Team in the heart of Tomball. I still have dreams to grow my business in more communities and grow my team of counselors. We strive to serve our community with all mental health needs. We provide individual counseling, couples counseling, group counseling, consultation, and workshops. We have counselors that speak Spanish and we each have our niche population and ages that we work with.
My life journey and experience created in me a passion for the work I am currently privileged to be doing. My niche is working alongside teen girls and women who are experiencing anxiety, depression, life challenges, and self-esteem issues. I love a good challenge and new experiences and found that I really enjoy working with changes of phases in life and trauma. I feel pride in providing a safe place to empower my clients to explore themselves become self-aware and set boundaries. I love all of my clients and love working with all humans! Being a human is really hard sometimes.
I take an integrated approach to counseling, pulling different techniques and interventions from a variety of styles depending on each individual’s needs. I am a lifelong learner, and I strive to learn in order to help and serve others.
I like to keep things real. This is the place, to be honest and messy. Nobody that steps foot in my door has all of their stuff together, including myself at times. I’m here to tell you it’s ok. I’m here to hear about it and help empower you while processing through this. You deserve to be heard.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Smooth…yes and no. I’m a first-generation American citizen and was the first in my family to pursue a higher degree. So, of course, there are always struggles in being a first. I felt an expectation of being successful for not just myself but to lead by example. I welcome the struggles I had because they helped push me in the right direction and also helped me see the good in all of the amazing support I had along the way. I could not currently be where I am without my husband being an amazing partner, husband, and father to our daughter. Especially during the 3000 hours, I had to compete and all the mom guilt I was feeling. I also need to give a huge thanks to Bruce Hillegeist who helped guide me as I did all the necessary steps to open up my business. It was scary, and it still is sometimes, but my motivation and drive keep me going because I know I want to continue to grow.
As you know, we’re big fans of The Therapy Team. For our readers who might not be as familiar, what can you tell them about the brand?
I’m sorry I sort of answered this with the first question. The Therapy Team is a team of therapists supporting you at any life stage.
We are here to help Empower diverse individuals, couples, families, and groups to accomplish mental health, wellness, education, and career goals. Together, we will help you heal and build a life you love that leaves you feeling fulfilled and whole.
We provide individual therapy where you Work one-on-one with a therapist to develop tools to foster a stronger relationship with yourself and others. We provided relationship therapy where you Gain insight and understanding as you work with your loved ones to cultivate strong and healthy relationships. We provide group therapy where we Utilize one or more therapists working with a group of individuals at the same time. By sharing and participating you are finding commonality through the difficulty and vulnerability, and simultaneously helping others in treatment. We provide walk-and-talk therapy where you take an opportunity to reduce stress, relieve body tension, improve circulation, and increase emotional intelligence. These sessions can help you decrease anxiety, regulate mood, enjoy more restful sleep, and more. If clients cannot walk for an entire hour, they find a location to sit and continue the counseling session. We provide Teletherapy, which is online or phone mental health therapy services via live video or phone call conferencing. Teletherapy sessions are similar to traditional sessions, with one major exception. Instead of sitting in the same room, clients and therapists interact via live video conferencing or phone calls conversations. We provide informational Workshops that are designed to inform clients about mental health information, provide useful tools and strategies, role-play scenarios to facilitate the formation of an understanding of how to implement techniques and provide additional reference resources about a variety of mental health topics.
Each of our therapists works with a different population and uses specific techniques for each individual.
My life journey and experience have created in me a passion for the work I am currently privileged to be doing. My niche is working alongside teen girls and women who have anxiety, depression, life challenges, and self-esteem issues. I like to keep things real. This is the place to be honest and messy. Nobody that steps foot in my door has all of their stuff together, including myself at times. I’m here to tell you it’s okay. I’m here to hear about it and help empower you while processing thoughts. You deserve to be heard.
Do you have any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
When I look back at my childhood, it’s full of love, memories, and experiences, both good and not-so-good. I didn’t grow up with much, but I never knew that and I’m thankful for my parents always teaching us to be grateful for everything we have and to work towards the things we want. This past year I lost my grandmother, the originator of the walk and talks that I now incorporated in my practice and therapeutic techniques for my clients. I loved walking down the street, and I especially loved our talks. I loved all of her stories, some were hard times she went through and others good times. She helped keep me grounded and connected to where we came from as a family. She was one of the strongest women I knew, gave the best advice, and had the best laugh.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.thetherapyteamtexas.com
- Instagram: @thetherapyteam @letstalkwithlizette
- Facebook: @thetherapyteamtexas
- Twitter: @thetherapyteamtexas
