🌍   BIPOC & Cultural Communities

For people of color, living with psychosis or obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) often comes with unique challenges. Alongside managing symptoms, many BIPOC clients face cultural stigma, discrimination, and systemic barriers that can make it harder to seek or trust care. Families and communities may interpret symptoms differently, and experiences of bias in healthcare can add to feelings of stress and isolation.

At TRACE Behavioral Health, I place cultural context at the center of treatment. I developed and use an individually tailored cultural competence assessment that helps identify how culture, community, and identity influence each client’s experience of illness and recovery. These tools ensure that therapy is not just evidence-based, but also personally relevant and culturally responsive.

In addition to my clinical practice, I have trained medical providers, medical students, and psychology trainees at UC San Diego, Sharp HealthCare, and Bayview/Paradise Hills in San Diego County on how to implement these culturally-informed approaches in their own work. This expertise allows me to provide clients with treatment that both honors their identity and leverages the best available science—whether through CBTp for psychosis, ERP for OCD, or ACT to address stigma and anxiety.

The goal is not only to reduce symptoms, but to help clients feel seen, supported, and empowered as they move toward recovery on their own terms.