Hidden Gems: Meet Crystal Venegas

Today we’d like to introduce you to Crystal Venegas.

Hi Crystal, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today.
I take a holistic approach to therapy – blending evidence-based & spiritual wellness methods to help big dreamers heal their whole selves. Creating my personal brand of therapy, however, has taken me the majority of my lifetime. A series of life experiences have blended together, influencing my personal values and beliefs and inspiring me to create the therapy experience that I wish I’d had when I first started my journey of healing. 

I knew I wanted to be a therapist since I was a teenager. I wanted to play a small role in the lives of others, looking for inner peace and growth. As a teenager and young adult, I had a lot of difficulty expressing myself and speaking my piece. It often led to me feeling unseen, unheard, unfulfilled, and outright scorned at times. I was fascinated to learn that there were individuals whom made an entire living out of normalizing those actions. I started taking the steps to earn the title of licensed therapist straight out of high school. As I was pursuing my bachelor’s in psychology, I began to explore other wellness philosophies and practices that could supplement my healing journey in addition to therapy. That’s when I came across Buddhism and then yoga. While other coping tools, rituals, and practices came and went, these two always held a space in my heart. 

I’m a firm believer in the universe pushing individuals in the exact direction that they need to go; it’s just up to us to receive that guidance and make the choice to follow it. So, when I discovered a university not too far from where I lived that offered a marriage and family therapy program that blends Buddhist wisdom with Western psychology, I knew with steadfast certainty that I was meant to continue my education there. I didn’t apply to any other graduate programs. I was determined to go there, and I am endlessly grateful for the experience because I truly thrived in that environment. The program also solidified this budding desire within me to take a non-traditional approach to treatment. They taught their students that this was not just possible but proving to be immensely beneficial for the continued growth of this field. 

Since graduating from that program, I’ve continued to expand my knowledge of holistic approaches to wellness. One of the most incredible ways in which I’ve done so is by co-founding a network for holistic practitioners in my area: The Holistic Healers Community. This community has provided me with an abundance of opportunities to learn all about the different healing modalities available. My co-founder and I quickly realized the incredible value of the conversations we were having with the practitioners that we were meeting, so we launched a podcast to record these conversations and spread the knowledge on a wider scale: Holistic Healers Community Podcast. 

It’s been an incredible journey, and it’s wild to think that I’m nowhere near done. The fact of the matter is, I’m still a fairly new therapist with just under a decade’s worth of experience. It brings me a lot of joy and excitement to imagine where I’ll be personally and professionally in another decade or 3 decades, so long as I continue on this beautiful path. 

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?
Absolutely not! There were so many struggles. I’m a first-generation college graduate, so getting through my bachelor’s program was a challenge in and of itself. Part of the reason why I took 2 years off between undergrad and grad school was because I had to battle with self-doubt. If no one else in my family had managed to make it that far, who was I to think that I had it in me to do so? I had to do lots of inner work to move past those limiting beliefs. 

Furthermore, an important part of becoming a therapist is the willingness to face your own history, biases, patterns, etc. So, all along my academic and professional journey, I’ve simultaneously been on a personal healing journey. It’s a commitment that I continually have to make to myself so that I may learn and develop into the very best version of myself possible. You can only take a client as far as you’ve been willing to go yourself, which is why I make efforts to be fearless in this process of mental, physical, and spiritual expansion. I like to say that I’m committed to a life of growth. 

Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Crystal Venegas, LMFT?
I take a holistic approach to mental health therapy by educating my clients on the interconnectedness of our being and collaborating with them to identify behaviors, rituals, and practices that can support them in living their most joyful and authentic lives. My clients tend to be highly intellectual, driven individuals chasing their goals. They struggle with conditions such as depression or anxiety as a result of the immense pressure that they place on themselves to perform to a certain standard or consistently achieve. I take their treatment well beyond the mental and emotional components. I also look at the spiritual, cultural, environmental, physical, social, and occupational factors that contribute to the overall issue. While I do provide several handy tools to shift mindset and regulate emotions, my approach most often calls for lifestyle shifts that address the root of the problem and produce longer-term results than putting a band-aid on the symptoms would. 

What sets me apart from others is that I acknowledge that MY approach to healing is not the end all be all. I consistently advocate for holistic healthcare by being open and honest when I believe that another modality might be more beneficial for a client’s particular concern or issue. Also, given that I have an entire community of trusted holistic practitioners in my network, it’s not uncommon for me to ask clients if they’ve tried reiki, refer them to a naturopathic doctor or clinical herbalist, or to process their most recent tarot session with them. The key piece is that I offer them a space where all forms of healing are welcomed and accepted. In doing so, I find that clients feel comfortable enough to consistently show up for, reflect on, and troubleshoot their healing journeys. I simply want readers to know that this type of approach to therapy exists. It’s still not exactly a mainstream approach, but holistic treatments are becoming a bit more popular. If this is something that resonates with readers, I encourage them to take their time searching for a therapist that has a similar style or background. 

How do you think about luck?
I don’t attribute my accomplishments or success to luck, be it good or bad at all. I believe that all of my experiences were meant to unfold as they have so that my soul could learn the lessons that it needs to learn in this lifetime. Along the way, I’ve had countless opportunities to choose my path: The path of receiving the lesson and integrating the knowledge to produce growth or the path of resisting or denying the lesson, only to be thrown into new experiences that invite me to make the choice all over again. While I’ve grown a whole lot on my healing journey, I’m not perfect. I still resist my lessons at times and find myself repeating patterns. I simply make an effort to bring awareness to these incidents and try again the next time the lesson presents itself to me. It’s a glorious and frustrating process. 

Contact Info:

• Website: www.crystalvenegaslmft.com
• Instagram: @crystalvenegaslmft
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/crystalsvenegas/
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/show/6YjjbUiFk6z6hJF2SHuY1S?si=e70dc1de8b5d49f6

Image Credits
Sonia Tapia