My father's from Mexico and is mostly indigenous. As a child, he instilled in me a deep spirituality and a sense of karmic justice: that there's a reason things happen -- not that everything that happens is good, but that it’s an essential part of one’s life path and is something that will ultimately make us grow as human beings, as spiritual beings. When something happens that makes me feel out of control, what restores my sense of control is knowing that there's a larger picture at play. It makes me feel like I don't have to be personally in control of everything because there is something larger that I believe in.

That belief has gotten me through all of the trauma that I have heard and witnessed working as a trauma specialist. It has also helped me with the feeling that I'm not going to be a good enough therapist to heal everybody. Obviously, I'm not going to be able to take care of everybody; but, as a therapist, as a healer, I sometimes feel that pressure — a need to heal everybody and fix everything.

That's what often leads to burnout — realizing we can't heal everybody. What keeps me from reaching that burnout is that I trust in this larger sense of control in the world and know that I personally don't have to have control over everything. That enables me to breathe, do what I can, and feel like it's enough.