Mario Alvarez Serrano

🌈ABOUT RAINBOWTOPIA COUNSELING, PLLC Rainbowtopia is a mental health counseling private practice serving everyone’s needs but with a focus on the unique needs of the LGBTQIA+ community. Our mission is to provide an INCLUSIVE safe space for prioritizing LGBTQIA+ clients. We specialize in centering the unique mental health needs of Queer + Transgendered + Immigrants + People of Color communities. Thus, people of all sexual orientations, gender identities, and expressions come to Rainbowtopia seeking affirming and sex positive quality mental health care services. Whether a person is just beginning to discover their sense of self and the intersectionality of their identity(ies) or is already needing letters of support for their medically necessary gender surgeries, Rainbowtopia is their home for getting their mental health needs met. I am passionate about multicultural counseling, grounded in a firm sense of self, and enjoy working with neurodivergent adults and adolescents with diverse expressions of gender, sexuality, and relationships. 🧔🏻ABOUT ME I am a bicultural + bilingual (Spanish/English) first generation immigrant queer Latinx licensed clinical professional counselor that specializes in providing affirming quality mental health counseling services to all who seek support and assistance navigating ways to improve having more positive intrapersonal and interpersonal relationships. I enjoy working with TGNC youth/young adults sharing psychological skills and tools they need to survive and thrive, especially those lacking familial or other institutionalized support systems. I assist, support, and encourage all clients to assert showing up for themselves with COURAGE, CURIOSITY and COMPASSION. In doing so, clients discover and embrace new ways to own their courage by realizing they are strong enough to experience the fulsome array of their emotions. I invite and often gently challenge clients to explore, process, and reflect on their own curiosities to discover the meaning of their own emotions and existentialism. Additionally, clients embrace a framework grounded on self-love and compassion – as this is a natural part of being human. I assess, model, and encourage clients to learn how to show-up for themselves in the most congruent and authentic ways they possibly can; even when clients are doubtful of their own strengths and abilities, often due to the external systemic and endemic negative messaging that then becomes automatic internalized cognitive distortions. 🧠PHILOSOPHY I believe that each client is an expert in their own life. I work to be an agent of change for those seeking comfort, healing, and a strong desire to live a more purposeful life via intentionally creating action to change negative inhibiting thoughts and behaviors preventing them from accomplishing their goals. I use a holistic approach drawing from different theoretical counseling orientations and tailoring therapy modalities to assist each client in discovering constructive ways to dismantle the barriers to their authentic happiness so they can experience living their lives with more purpose and intentionality. Instillation of hope and the capacity to execute changes - cognitively and behaviorally - are strengths of the human spirit and an ability potential each of us can attain. We all strive to live a more fulfilled life comprised of a richer emotionally attuned reciprocal connection with ourselves and with those we hold relationships with. Helping people who have not learned to overcome their self-love deficit and transform themselves into who they aspire to be, is part of the healing journey and a testament to the power of the therapeutic process. Essential to the therapeutic process is a safe and strong therapeutic alliance between client and clinician. Thus, I collaborate with clients in identifying concerns regarding potential impediments for us in developing and establishing a safe and trusting long-term therapeutic relationship. ⚕️THERAPY WITH ME My goal in the therapeutic setting is to provide each client with an emotionally safe environment where they feel comfortable (showing up as their true self) and ready to explore, process, and reflect on who they are, what they want/expect to get from therapy, and collaborate on developing attainable treatment goals to help them achieve their therapeutic objectives. Clients working with me bravely embark on the journey of exploring even the biggest challenges of their lives; whether it is how to manage overwhelming emotions such as anxiety or depression, learning to recognize and resist surrendering to unhealthy or harmful/unfair patterns in life and relationships, or confronting past trauma/abuse/neglect. I strive to create a warm, empathic, and non-judgmental atmosphere in therapy while utilizing a collaborative and strengths-based approach to identify goals and facilitate introspective growth, change, recovery, and healing. I do this by holding space and providing psychological support to clients so they can embrace becoming who they are meant to be – free of external biases, prejudices, and expectations that inhibit self-love and self-actualization. While success in therapy is measured on a case-by-case basis, I value supporting each client’s therapeutic journey with behavioral and cognitive interventions aimed at improving their role functioning – so clients can experience living their life more optimally, increasing intrapersonal satisfaction and amplified contentment with their interpersonal relational dynamics. In addition to providing comprehensive mental health counseling/psychotherapy services, I also offer the following professional services: immigration psychological evaluations for the Latinx community; life coaching; peer consultation services; and clinical supervision for colleagues seeking to fulfill Illinois’ clinical licensure requirements, as per the Professional Counselor and Clinical Professional Counselor Licensing and Practice Act (225 ILCS 107/). 🏫EDUCATION AND TRAINING Licenses: Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor (Illinois License No. 180011027) Licensed Mental Health Counselor (Florida License No. MH20041) National Board for Certified Counselors Inc. (NCC No. 889842) Credentials: MA, Community Counseling, Illinois School of Professional Psychology, Argosy University JD, Beasley School of Law, Temple University BS, Sociology, Illinois State University