Ana Guadalupe Reyes, Ph.D., LPC, NCC, CHST

Biography

!Hola! Hello! I am honored to join each of you as you embark on this beautiful and transformational journey. I am Ana Guadalupe Reyes, a second-generation, queer Afro-Latinx non-binary femme-presenting child of [un]documented immigrants, born and raised in Washington Heights (aka Da Heights), New York.

Growing up in Da Heights, a predominantly Dominican neighborhood in uptown Manhattan has deeply influenced my worldview, values, and cultural practices. My first language, mi lengua maternal, is Spanish, born of the unique blend of my mother’s Nicaragüense Spanish and my father’s Dominicano Spanish. My second language, English, has become my dominant language due to my English-predominant formal schooling and professional training. However, a third “language” – Spanglish – often captures my experience; a beautiful blend of Spanish and English that feels like a warm afternoon in Da Heights.

As a child, I dreamed of becoming a medical doctor to support others through their healing process. I did become a doctor – just not in the medical field. My journey into the counseling field started with my own experiences of adverse childhood experiences, trauma, and oppression. Shortly after moving to Tiffin, Ohio, to begin my undergraduate studies at Tiffin University, I experienced immense culture shock and oppression. Such experiences helped me quickly realize that I needed support as a queer, racialized, first-generation college student in a predominantly white institution. After seeking personal counseling, I fell in love with the field of mental health and started learning as much as I could about counseling and different approaches to healing. In 2012, I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Forensic Psychology and a concentration in Addictions Counseling.

After taking a year off to work with marginalized and racialized youth across the U.S., I decided to go back to school to pursue my goal of becoming a Licensed Professional Counselor. In 2015, I obtained a Master’s in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Marymount University and shortly thereafter moved to Denton, Texas to complete a doctorate program in counseling. In 2020, I obtained my Ph.D. in Counseling from the University of North Texas. And now I am here with you – ready to co-create new memories and explore new adventures. I look forward to learning and growing alongside each of you.

Counselor Educator Identity

Over the years, I have learned that all my roles as a counselor educator (e.g., counselor, supervisor, educator, researcher, and advocate) are interrelated and interdependent. Each role requires unique skills, responsibilities, and paradigms that allow me to increase my ability to be of service to clients, students, co-researchers, colleagues, and the profession, while actively working towards expanding critical consciousness. Thus, the following presuppositions shape my counselor educator identity: 

Experiential. I believe that learning and healing happen through experiences that allow us to see ourselves, others, and the world differently. Experiences that create awareness and open different possibilities.

Relational. I believe that learning and healing occur in the context of relationships with self, others, and the world around us.

Reflective. I believe that learning and healing require reflection. Reflection requires that we embrace moments of silence, softness, and stillness, which can give way to different ways of knowing, seeing, and being in relationship with others, intentionally and without judgment. However, action must accompany reflection to create change.

Student-Centered. I believe that we all heal and learn differently, and I am responsible for co-creating a learning environment with students that meets their needs, interests, abilities, and learning style. 

Intersectional. I believe that learning and healing help us acknowledge, honor, and integrate our identities and experiences through reflection, dialogue, and advocacy work.

Compassionate. I believe that a heart-centered approach to learning and healing allows us to emotionally and authentically connect with ourselves, others, and the material presented in class.

Teaching

As a counselor educator, I strive to create a courageous environment and experiences that encourage students to critically explore themselves, others, and the world around them. I believe that teaching is a dynamic, creative, fluid, and mutual process that happens in relationship with other beings (i.e., humans, spirits, animals) to expand universal consciousness and for the betterment of self, others, and the world. I am committed to role modeling the practice of  praxis , defined as the "ongoing interaction of reflection, dialogue, and action" (Darder, Baltodano, & Torres, 2009, p. 13) by sharing my experiences and engaging in dialogue and action in the classroom. I will facilitate the creation of openings for my students to make contact with each other to explore and interrogate their assumptions for the expansion of critical consciousness. My teaching philosophy is complex and multidimensional, involving constant exploration of self as a counselor educator, the willingness to be vulnerable, and intentional dialogue between self and students. My role as a teacher and learner is to develop relationships with students to foster safety and create opportunities for transformational growth.

Freire's  critical pedagogy  and Mezirow's  transformative learning inform my teaching. I respond to the needs of
students from a relational and cultural perspective using a student-centered approach, which allows teachers and students the flexibility and autonomy to co-create the learning process. I believe that together, we can create a culturally responsive environment in which we can all learn from each other through self-awareness, self-exploration, self-acceptance, and acceptance of the "other" for the liberation of all people. I believe that the classroom is a space for dialogue and increasing our understanding of power and privilege. I intentionally create and co-create assignments and activities that integrate authentic materials (i.e., culturally relevant materials) to facilitate experiential, embodied, and transformative learning.

Service

I have served in various leadership roles in the service of the profession. For example, I served as the University of North Texas’ Chi Sigma Iota (CSI): Rho Kappa Chapter Past-President, President, and President-elect. During my tenure as President-elect of CSI: Rho Kappa Chapter, I co-authored a grant to attend the Texas Counseling Association’s Advocacy Day for mental health counselors and organized a didactic and experiential advocacy training for doctoral and master’s-level counseling students. Additionally, I have served as a mentor for the National Board of Certified Counselors Minority Fellowship Program to support counselors-in-training with their professional development. As a servant leader, I maintain a collaborative and relational leadership approach and work diligently to acknowledge and honor differences, while working towards a common goal. I believe that service to the profession is an important and fulfilling aspect of being a counselor educator, and I also believe that service to the community is necessary to promote social justice. As an advocate, I work collaboratively with community organizations to fight alongside marginalized communities. During my time with Movimento Cosecha Denton, I created and facilitated workshops to address the needs of Latinx/Latine folx in Denton, Texas, including training teachers and community leaders to support [un]documented and multi-status Latinx/Latine children and families. Additionally, I organized and co-facilitated Family Preparedness Workshops in Spanish to equip multi-status families with knowledge and resources to prepare for a possible immigration detainment or deportation.

Clinical

I am a Licensed Professional Counselor in the State of Texas, a National Certified Counselor, a Certified Humanistic Sandtray Therapist, a Somatic Trauma Therapist, and a Usui Reiki Master/Teacher. Over the past ten years, I have had the honor of centering my work around the physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual healing of marginalized and racialized folx, particularly immigrants, queer and trans siblings, and Black folx through various roles. Throughout my clinical career, I have had the honor to work as a bilingual (i.e., English and Spanish) counselor in various settings with individual, couples, family, and group counseling sessions with clients between the ages of 4 and 93. To support clients holistically, I develop strong community partnerships with nonprofit organizations, community organizers, attorneys, activists, and healers. As a Licensed Professional Counselor in the State of Texas, I facilitate counseling sessions using talk therapy, nature-based therapy, animal-assisted therapy, and holistic and creative modalities. I have seized every opportunity to learn, experience, and practice liberatory approaches to clinical work while actively unlearning white supremacy, anti-blackness, and wrestling with my internalization of oppressive ideologies. My clinical work centers underserved, and what I would call “never served” communities (i.e., [un]documented folx, Latinx/Latine folx, queer folx), which guides my teaching and research. I remain committed to continual clinical growth and development.

Research

I am a socially-just qualitative researcher committed to scholarly work that is action-oriented, liberatory, and anti-oppressive. My dissertation research explored queer womxn of color’s (QWoC) experiences of microaggressions in therapy using intersectionality theory (Crenshaw, 1989) and photovoice methodology (Wang, 1999; Wang & Burris, 1997). In collaboration with seven QWoC who courageously shared their experiences of microaggressions in therapy, I developed a photovoice exhibit, Through Our Lens, to increase awareness of co-researchers’ experiences in therapy.

My research interests are diverse yet grounded in participatory action research (PAR) principles. PAR provides a research framework in which participants are more than subjects onto which research is conducted. Unlike other research methodologies, PAR "is considered democratic, equitable, liberating, and life-enhancing" (MacDonald, 2012, p. 35) because this methodology requires the collection and analysis of data to drive action and create change in the lives of co-researchers, marginalized communities, and society at large (Kidd & Kral, 2005; Latz, 2017). I am interested in exploring QWoC’s resilience, resistance, and factors that support their healing. I am also interested in research related to the lived experiences and mental health needs of Latinx/Latine folx particularly queer and [un]documented Latinx/Latine communities, the integration of indigenous healing approaches into counseling, and the development of bilingual counselors and culturally conscious counselors. I enjoy partnering with communities and students to co-create research studies that are healing and liberatory for all involved.

Recent Publications

Baggerly, J., Ceballos, P., Rodriguez, M. & Reyes, A. G. (2022). Cultural adaptations for disaster response for children in Puerto Rico. Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development, 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1002/jmcd.12246

Cartwright, A. D., Barrio Minton, C., Reyes, A. G., Abernathy, M., & Groves, K. (2022). Predictors of social intelligence, empathy, and self-efficacy among sexual offenders. Journal of Addictions & Offender Counseling, 14(1), 2-14. https://doi.org/10.1002/jaoc.12098

Cartwright, A. D., Carey, C. C., Chen, H., Hammonds, D. S., Reyes, A. G., & White. M. E. (2021). Multi-tiered intensive supervision: A culturally-informed method of clinical supervision. Teaching and Supervision in Counseling, 3(2), 80-88.
https://doi.org/10.7290/tsc030208

Conner, C. & Reyes, A. G. (2017).Preparing counselors-in-training for professional advocacy. Southern Association of Counselor Education and Supervision Newsletter, 13(2), 12-14.