Christina Vasquez in her 15-plus years of being a school counselor believed in getting out of the office. 

“Be visible, be out there,” Vasquez said, recalling how she greeted students in school hallways. “I always felt that it was important to be out there and to have that visibility with the kids.”

Vasquez was initially a teacher before settling into working as a counselor for students at every grade level at various campuses in the Weslaco school district. Weslaco is where she spent the vast majority of her public-school teaching and counseling years. She enjoyed those years and speaks highly of her colleagues and administrators in the Weslaco schools. Vasquez would eventually yearn to set out and try her own ideas and counseling approaches that did not always adhere to structures of a public education system. 

“I wanted to do more,” she said, detailing the array of mental health issues facing young people today. 

Vasquez had already begun offering some private counseling services. She envisioned doing it full time.

“I asked myself, ‘what’s stopping me?'” Vasquez said of going out on her own full time three years ago. “I had to take a leap of faith. There’s always some fear going outside the stability of working for a school district.”

Making Transitions

Vasquez’s leap took her to establishing Creative Being Counseling & Consulting in Weslaco.

She offers individual counseling for clients 12 years of age and older. Her company also conducts workshops with public and private sector groups. The motivational programs she leads with these groups are customized to the team she’s addressing. She also focuses on optimism and awareness to envision improved workspaces. 

“She led our team in different activities and got everyone engaged,” said Cynthia Cabaza, a vice president for Shepard Walton King Insurance Group, in describing Vasquez’s programs. “It seemed more like a deep conversation that a presentation, which we fully enjoyed.”

Vasquez is a state-licensed professional counselor. She details the overlap of mental health issues affecting teenagers and adults. Youngsters can struggle to fit in and are especially conscious of how peer see them, often comparing themselves to others. Adults struggle with transitions in life, be it divorces, the passing of a loved one, or losing a job or career and having to adjust anew.

“Life changes are hard on people of all ages,” Vasquez said. 

Mental health struggles can lead to eating disorders and depression among teens, she said. The same goes for adults, with Vasquez saying she sees anxiety issues among people of all ages.

Expressing Feelings

Vasquez is an advocate for using art, creative writing and journaling as methods of therapy.

Being creative through art and journaling helps people to express their feelings and organize their thoughts. Part of this process is recognizing triggers that can ignite bad habits and behavior. She said, in essence, it’s “catching yourself” before engaging in a negative action.

Many of these themes and subjects will be part of an upcoming Girl’s Conference that Creative Being is organizing for a June 10 event at the Mid-Valley campus of South Texas College in Weslaco. The purpose of the conference is to provide teen girls with opportunities to have meaningful conversations about their emotional well-being and participate in hands-on activities to bolster their confidence.

Vasquez has assembled an impressive roster of female speakers who can speak to teen girls about their own experiences at their ages and how they worked through them to gain success in their adult lives. She is involving the community in seeking sponsorships to cover costs for girls attending the daylong conference.

“Society has given them a certain image of what beautiful looks like,” Vasquez said of teen girls. “The program will fight the stigma that looking beautiful doesn’t just look one way.”

It’s also about taking that leap of faith, as Vasquez did, and working toward making it right.