Today we’d like to introduce you to Natalia/Lisa Alas Duran/Batres
Hi Natalia/Lisa, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
We are two first-gen bilingual Latina therapists (Lisa Batres, LCSW, and Natalia Alas Durán, LCSW-S, LICSW) who have come together to create an empowering and culturally attuned mental health practice. As two friends who met in Boston College’s MSW Latine Leadership Initiative program in 2014, we quickly realized that we shared the same values of making mental health services more accessible to BIPOC communities. Years later, after we both reunited in Austin, Texas in 2023, we began talking about what it would be like to start a practice together. Having spent most of our careers working with immigrant and first-generation clients, we found that we both truly enjoy working with this population so we began to envision what it would be like to dedicate a practice to this population of clients. We thought of people like our own family members, friends, and community members who are hesitant about meeting with a therapist (and for valid reasons!) and we wanted to dedicate a practice where people like them can try therapy, even if they are nervous about it. We also know that a lot of clients who come from immigrant households may be nervous or anxious about starting counseling or speaking with a mental health professional, because of stigma and cultural factors. This led to the creation of Sin Miedo (“Without Fear”) Counseling. We chose the name to acknowledge that starting something new can be anxiety-provoking and scary, but we can still do brave things or act fearlessly even if that fear or worry is still there.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It has been a huge learning experience for the both of us! Although we have been providing mental health services in a variety of settings for years (hospitals, community health centers, residential settings, therapy groups – you name it), figuring out how to create our own business and launch our own practice took a lot of work. Things like marketing, the logistics of running a small business, and building trust with potential clients kept us up working long hours.We also wanted to put a lot of thought into how to make our counseling services accessible to our community, since we dedicated it to them so we had to be creative about how we would do that. We were very fortunate to have many colleagues in the community and mentors who have offered us guidance along the way – we wouldn’t have been able to do it all without them!
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Sin Miedo Counseling is a small practice based in Austin, Texas that specializes in offering culturally-affirming and trauma-informed counseling in English and Spanish to residents of Texas, Massachusetts, and Virginia. Our mission is to demystify and make the process of starting counseling feel easier, especially for those who are nervous about counseling. As two first-generation individuals, we resonate with clients who may come from households where going to therapy is not the norm and where things like depression and anxiety aren’t a “real thing”. We also understand that some people have tried counseling and they haven’t had good experiences with it. Going to therapy is vulnerable and our mission is to make it feel a little easier by being authentic, compassionate, and through meeting clients where they are at so they can find the tools, strategies, and language to make sense of their experience and work towards healing.
In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
Counseling is definitely changing. We are seeing a shift in different methods of counseling being offered like walk-and-talk therapy and somatic therapy and not just traditional talk therapy. It feels like after COVID, people became more open about talking about mental health so we feel that the need for counseling will continue to grow and what counseling can look like is expanding. It’ll be interesting to see the use of AI in counseling, which some therapists in the community are talking about, but overall we are excited to see where the mental health field will go.
Pricing:
- Individual Counseling – $160
- Workshops – Free (in collaboration with local agencies)
- Clinical Supervision – $100
- We also offer counseling at a reduced fee or “sliding scale”
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.sinmiedocounseling.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sinmiedocounseling/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sin-miedo-counseling-pllc
