Today we’d like to introduce you to Alyssa Cedillo.
Hi Alyssa; thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I (Alyssa Cedillo) founded the Tree of Life Counseling Center. I was never trained on how to start and run a business. Unfortunately, that is somewhat purposeful in our profession. We are taught to care for others and help them to grow with little investment in ourselves. Our academic institutions and professional organizations are steeped in white supremacy and bias, leading to a disconnection between our communities and within our community of healers. I started TLCC to provide decolonized services to our community at large and provide a safe place for healers to come to heal and learn how they can be good ancestors and disrupt systems of oppression.
If you identify as BIPOC or LGBTQIA+, are a member of a marginalized community, or advocate for marginalized identities, you have likely been struggling to find a provider who truly honors your lived experience & can build a deeper relationship with you. We work to provide a space where you can fully explore all parts of self, hash out what is truly you, and what may be societal/systemic pressures to conform. We seek the collective liberation of the community we serve, which starts with you and I. Therapy with us is an environment where you can explore all parts of self in a nonjudgmental space to gain insight, acceptance, and our collective liberation as a community.
It is our profound honor & responsibility to take a culturally-responsive, social justice, nontraditional Western medicine approach to treatment. We blend methods that incorporate mind–body connection, identify internalized biases & assist you in determining where your challenges are coming from & how to work through them. We get to the root of it! As you heal, you heal those around you just by being you. We can’t wait to hear from you and witness your journey!
Alright, let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what challenges have you had to overcome?
It has most definitely been a challenging road. Losing our original location, starting up during a pandemic, rent rates skyrocketing, and dealing with my own losses has yet to make this endeavor easy. Going up against systems that do not see the disparity in our communities or do not want to see it has been a huge struggle. We have had many transitions, but that has all lead us to having a staff of amazingly caring and responsive healers.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next, you can tell us more about your business.
Tree of Life is a space for those committed to creating space for intergenerational healing, racial justice, access to their inner healing abilities, and the collective liberation of our communities!
We also have our sister nonprofit, Root of It Foundation in which we work towards the same goals, although we focus on the providers engaged in services.
The root of It Foundation was created to do exactly what the name states, get to the root of what is causing the pain and suffering in our community. This means actively removing roadblocks that have been put in place to deny providers and the community full access to their inner healing abilities.
The community deserves providers who want to get to the root of our pain decolonizing mental health and work toward collective liberation. “decolonizing” mental health and “generational healing” are not just buzzwords to us, but they are part of the active process of unlearning practices that do harm to the community around us as well as to healers.
The truth is that creating access for others is difficult when we struggle to create access ourselves. Many times, providers are struggling to support themselves while also working to dismantle internalized oppression and hold space for those we have the honor to serve. The Root of it Foundation works alongside Tree of Life Counseling Center to compliment services and provide access to BIPoC providers and allies to quality training and development as professionals and access to the community to this caliber of healers.
The Root of It Foundation will be participating in the Big Give in September and donations can be made at https://www.thebiggivesa.org/organizations/root-of-it-foundation.
What makes you happy?
Seeing my community flourish, people stepping into their power, watching individuals’ mindset shift, and witnessing those around me grow.
Pricing:
- $120-$160
Contact Info:
- Website: https://treeoflifecounselingcenter.org/
https://www.rootofit.org/ - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/treeoflife_cc/#
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/treeoflifecounselingcenterSA
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tree-of-life-counseling-center/
- The Big Give: https://www.thebiggivesa.org/
organizations/root-of-it- foundation
Image Credits
ShawnshootsNice Photography linktr.ee/shawnshootsnice
