Blog

The Tree of Life Counseling Center blog is dedicated to educating and empowering individuals on their journey toward mental well-being through culturally responsive, social justice-oriented content.

Alyssa Cedillo Alyssa Cedillo

Discover the Value of Working with a Clinical Mental Health Graduate Student at TLCC

At Tree of Life Counseling Center (TLCC), we are deeply committed to fostering the next generation of healers. Through our graduate student program, we offer individuals a unique opportunity to receive counseling services from bright, passionate students in their clinical mental health programs. Under the supervision of licensed professionals and faculty, these students provide high-quality, compassionate care to our community.

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Alyssa Cedillo Alyssa Cedillo

We Can’t Normalize This: ICE Raids, Mental Health, and the Urgency of Collective Resistance | No podemos normalizar esto: Redadas de ICE, salud mental y la urgencia de resistir colectivamente

ICE raids are not routine. They are not “just part of the system.”

Las redadas de ICE no son rutinarias. No son “parte del sistema”.

They are state-sanctioned violence—dehumanizing, destabilizing, and traumatic.

Son violencia avalada por el estado—deshumanizante, desestabilizadora y traumática.

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Alyssa Cedillo Alyssa Cedillo

Finding My Way Back: A Journey of Healing and Resistance

I did not enter the mental health field with ease—I fought my way in. The journey was not just about acquiring degrees, credentials, or professional titles. Initially it was about survival and a relationship with capitalism and colonialism I had to work my way through, with little guidance from institutions of learning or empathy.

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Alyssa Cedillo Alyssa Cedillo

A Hornet’s Nest: A Reflection on the Journey Toward Healing, Recognition, and Safety

“As I prepare to travel to Houston today, I can't shake the feeling that I'm walking straight into a hornet's nest. I'm traveling alone as a brown-bodied woman through Texas—a state with a troubling history of police brutality—for a DEI award on a weekend marked by unrest. To top it off, I’ll be accepting the award in front of a room full of white bodies.

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