Sibella B. Salazar

Everyone has stories for how they came to be where they are today. Stories have the power to create. I believe my role is to empower my clients, wherever they are in their own particular story, and aide in creating a narrative of resilience, healing and change. I am a counseling psychologist licensed in New Mexico with almost 10 years of experience working as a mental health provider across multiple contexts (e.g., individual therapy, behavioral health consultant, medical settings, school-based settings). I have worked with clients with a wide range of concerns including depression, anxiety, relationship issues, complex grief and loss, motivation, self-esteem, identity development, race-related distress, trauma and abuse. For two years at a community clinic in Minneapolis, I specifically worked with indigenous communities with concerns related to complex trauma, historical and intergenerational trauma, sociocultural stressors, removal from primary caretaker homes, and adjustment difficulties inside and outside the home. The clients I have had the joy of interacting with come from a diverse age range from 6 to 80 years old. I utilize a warm, interactive, and relational approach to my therapy style. I believe that respect, sensitivity, compassion, and knowledge of historical and systemic influences are important for working with members from historically marginalized communities. I practice from an integrative approach in therapy, with narrative therapy as the foundation. Indigenous Ways of Knowing (IWOK) is a paradigm of indigenous epistemologies of holistic being. Therefore, I rely a great deal on IWOK to inform my strategy for utilizing interventions from an array of theoretical orientation (e.g., cognitive-behavioral therapy, person-centered, mindfulness, play-based) to best meet the clients’ needs.