Vásquez Counseling & Consulting Psychology, PLLC
A private practice offering comprehensive psychological services to Laredoans and Nuevo Laredoans in the Villa de San Agustín de Laredo, the border city of seven flags.
Psychological services are offered in English and en español, in-person and virtually.
LAREDOANS
Go farther up, go further in…
Vásquez Counseling & Consulting Psychology [VCCP] offers psychological services that are values-based in foundation and behavioral in perspective. So, while trauma, addictions, anxiety, depression, or problems at work threaten to drag you down to muddy defeats, we show you how to get back to your feet, step out of those pits, and journey toward what you value in this life (and in the next). Defeat is not who you are. Running away is not what you are going to do. Rise above the mud of defeat by becoming who you are. (Couples and families are welcome, but let’s start by focusing on you first.)
“They tried to bury us, they didn’t know we were seeds.” Mexican dicho/Greek proverb
MEN
We can help you view each worst enemy as your best teacher and each knock-down defeat or exultant victory as a rite of passage before your next battle. How? Not by sinking into defeat or running away, and not by getting lost in the froth of success, but by going farther up and further in to yourself without fear. First, we discover your core values. Second, we survey the story of your life frankly and without shame. Third, we ride by your side as a fellow journeyman. Neither defeat nor victory are who you are. Neither defeat nor victory are where you will stay. And running away is not what you are going to do. Rise above both by becoming who you are.
WOMEN
How many times have you heard the phrases “work-life balance,” “lean in,” “juggling responsibilities,” “self-care,” and “you can have it all?” Probably a million, but how does that work when you are also trying to be “the perfect employee, the perfect wife, the perfect mother, sister, lover, and friend?” Also, don’t forget that according to popular media you are supposed to look amazing and act like it’s effortless, too. Is this what womanhood is really about? Burnout, fatigue, and agitation? Is that balance? Let us work work with you on achieving real balance based on your values, what you really love and what you really want at your life’s hearth, rather than settling for tired tropes that burn away like straw.
CHILDREN
Our work with kids and teens is varied and based on their specific needs. Sometimes children simply need evaluations for school or due to disabilities. Sometimes children will need to have their behaviors corrected in order to better match the values of the family. Due to the complexity and continuing degradation of modern culture, sometimes teens just need a listening ear. Let us help. Our focus will not only be on the child or adolescent but with the family and community together as we seek to provide what they need as they prepare to become the men and women that they want to be.
These categories are admittedly general. Our services are available to all as we seek to respect and value differences that include attributes such as race, ethnicity, culture, age, gender, religion, sexual orientation, gender expression, sexual identity, ability, socioeconomic status, and language.
Corporate
Evaluation & Assistance
Trained in Lean/Six Sigma, as well as the most up-to-date methodological and statistical methods, let us pinpoint the factors associated with success in your industry and work on improving your productivity and the bottom line.
We also offer a variety of pre-employment psychological screenings and fitness for duty evaluations for agencies and individuals including first responders, federal, state, and local law enforcement (completion of form L3), U.S. Dept of Homeland Security (e.g., U.S. Customs Border Protection, U.S. Border Patrol), police and fire departments.
Psychoeducational assessments, IQ testing, careers assessments, learning disability assessments, autism evaluations, and immigration hardship evaluations are also regularly performed.
Church
Polity & Risk Mitigation
Let’s face it. In today’s litigious society churches can no longer do things “in house,” and trust that nothing bad is going to happen. Sometimes church leaders just need help, too. Sometimes, even church leaders do bad things.
VCCP has experience working with churches in issues related to policy improvement, risk and liability mitigation, and counseling for a variety of issues, including those you see on the news every day. Increasingly, churches are employing external consultants for dealing with issues like psychological fitness of church leaders (pastors, deacons, elders or lay leaders) as well as counseling of congregants for issues that transcend the spiritual and cross over into the psychological.
Over the past several years VCCP has regularly consulted with various church/ecclesiastical bodies on these issues and may serve as a competent voice of counsel for your church, too. We offer churches training in mental health issues, too.
YOUR PSYCHOLOGIST
D.A. Vásquez, PhD
– Licensed psychologist
– Active academic researcher
– Husband and father
Dr. Vásquez is a Laredoan with documented family ties to South Texas (Laredo and San Antonio) and northeast Mexico (especially Monterrey, Saltillo, Guerrero Viejo and Mier) existing since the 1600s. He is one of the local descendants of Don Tomás Sánchez de la Barrera y de la Garza, the founder of Laredo. [more]
NOT READY TO TALK? THAT’S FINE, JUST KEEP READING
Note: VCCP does not necessarily endorse content sourced from other websites.
MIND
The Strategies of Categorization
Our mental ability to divide the complex world into categories makes our daily life much easier. But how do we categorize? What kind of stimulus properties do we assess? Researchers have come a step closer to answering these questions with the help of pigeons... [keep...
Riddles to Sharpen Your Brain
Puzzles, games, and even riddles can help delay the symptoms of dementia and alzheimer’s disease. Studies show that keeping the mind active can reduce the amount of brain cell damage that occurs in Alzheimer’s patients, as well as support the growth of new nerve cells...
‘Tis the Season for Optimism
As someone who thinks a lot about mental health, I have always been a sucker for the month of December. Even though our climate gives us dark days and cold temperatures, our consumer-driven culture pushes us to gobble up the bargains and drain our wallets, and our...
BODY
The Sweet Danger of Sugar
Sugar has a bittersweet reputation when it comes to health. Sugar occurs naturally in all foods that contain carbohydrates, such as fruits and vegetables, grains, and dairy. Consuming whole foods that contain natural sugar is okay... [keep reading]
Benefits of a Daily Walk
One of the most powerful ways to maintain a healthy weight, stay strong, and live longer is so shockingly simple, even a toddler can do it. The health benefits of walking are endless, and experts agree by adding walking to your routine, you can truly improve your...
A Healthy New Year
As the curtains close for 2021, let's look back at the last 18 months. For many of us, the pandemic has caused disruptions in our day-to-day lives. The pandemic has taken a toll on our work-life balance and also on our eating patterns... [keep reading]
SOUL
The Origin of the Soul
Students of philosophy are well aware of the watershed significance of Immanuel Kant’s epochal work, The Critique of Pure Reason. In this volume Kant gave a comprehensive critique of the traditional arguments for the existence of God, wrecking havoc on natural...
5 Minutes in Church History
Travel back in time as we look at the people, events, and even the places that have shaped the story of Christianity. Each episode offers an easily digestible glimpse of how the eternal, unchangeable God has worked in the church over prior generations, and how this...
The Lost Art of Humility
I was watching a clip the other day about a 911 emergency call operator who twigged that something was up with a 911 call they received. Albeit it took them considerable time to figure out that the person couldn’t speak openly because the antagonist was within...
Let’s talk.
[email protected]
6826 Springfield Ave., Ste 103A
Laredo, TX 78041
956-608-1515