Thrive Together: Crystal Guzman’s Vision for Equitable Mental Health Access

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And one of them asked her Why now? ¿Like why are you sharing all this with me? And she said, I just watched some of your videos on social media and you're sharing some private stuff, and I know you're not going to judge me. And I thought, that's exactly why I'm sharing is because our story becomes a healing for other people. Because now they know that you know what I'm not alone. She went through it. And the more we share, especially as women, the more we share what we went through, other women are going to be able to connect with you and understand that they're not alone. We all have so much in common, and if we all just shared that we would know and we'd be able to connect from that, from our shared stories.

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I am thrilled to have another mom, somebody who's been through the trials, tribulations of being a single mom, rediscovery, trauma, figuring out a lot of stuff about ourselves in our journeys on the show today to give you some inspiration going into the New Year. Crystal Guzman You are that person. You are doing so much with your passion and your pursuit everything from the find You Balance Center for Growth and Change. You have a nonprofit home opportunity, mental empowerment or home. You have a healthcare directory. And you're also launching a mother daughter journal which my daughter is my everything. So I think that's all amazing. But your story begins before motherhood and getting divorced. ¿Can you talk a little bit about the other factors in your life that led to you deciding what you stood for, what you didn't stand for, and how you wanted to move through the world?

Yeah, it's interesting. I think now as a fifty something year old woman, you know, looking back at just who I was and what direction I was going in. It was almost like I was just meant to be here to do what I'm doing right now. Because I look back at fifteen. I had volunteered at Children's Institute International which my mom worked there and she invited me to come and volunteer. And I stood there in the courtyard taking care of all of these foster kids. And one by one they came and they wanted a hug, and I would hug them and tell them how wonderful they were, and they were so amazing. And then the next one would come. And before I knew it, I had a long row of kids just waiting to be hugged and told these like, positive affirmations because I think back and I'm like, wow, that was my very first like experience with kids. And then I think like my whole life. That's kind of. Just the course that I took was helping people, helping little kids, helping the developmentally disabled. I worked with a lot of young girls and teen women who were sexually abused. So a lot of really deep work started there. Women of domestic violence. You know I. My story is, I was exposed to domestic violence when I was a kid. Little did I know that one day I would be sitting in a room being the helper, you know, helping the kids and helping the mom through these situations. So I think all of those little experiences looking at what I'm doing right now, it just seems natural and normal and kind of like I've been doing this my whole life. So it just keeps growing in a different way.

Amazing. So talk about how you started your work, your career in mental health, and all of the things that you did that led you to launch your mental health practice and your nonprofit.

Yeah, so I started that on my own well for many, many years. I was working in the nonprofit world, so it was nonprofit community based work. I did go into private practice and I opened up my own private practice and Covid hit. So at that point, anybody who was in the helping field, I mean, we were overloaded with calls, people reaching out, people needing help. And that's when I started hiring. My first employee was during Covid. And then I just built. I think at the end of that year, I had about twelve employees. And then since then, we've grown to about fifty five ish at this point. So we just kept growing and growing based on the need. And we serve people who have insurance. So medical, commercial insurance. And what I was finding was that there was nothing out there for the people who were underinsured or people who had a dollar eighty copay for their insurance and really couldn't afford that. You know, a middle class family who wants to be in therapy every week or have multiple family members in therapy can't eighty dollars a week is a lot of money when you're looking at it on a consistent basis. So that's when the idea of having the non profit came up. And so the nonprofit is there to bridge the gap with the needs that we can't provide as a for profit. But the nonprofit can provide free services. So everyone who's at the nonprofit is volunteering. So these are therapists who want to volunteer, you know, and do a couple of hours to help a family. All of our groups are based on volunteer work. So these are people who actually want to give back and help people. And so we're offering a lot of different free services through the nonprofit. And then you brought up the journal. So the journal is something that I'm working on for. I don't even know if it's been a year. Two years started with my daughter. ¿You know? I have one daughter and she's the middle child. And anyone who's a mom knows that raising kids is tough, you know. And keeping that connection with your kids as they're turning into young adults. You know, they're in that little girl era. And then she turns into this teen. ¿And it's like, whoa, how do I? I'm no longer the cool mom. I'm the mom that knows nothing. ¿And how do you keep that connection with your kids, right? So I started doing the journal as a way of pulling my daughter into me. ¿So I was like, you know what? Let's create something together. ¿And I was like, what colors do you like? Or I like this color. I like that color. ¿What's your favorite animal? Oh, I love cats. They're my favorite. ¿Okay, So what's a good activity that you want to do today? And so we would color together. And then the next day, I'd be like, I'm gonna write good stuff about you and you're gonna write good stuff about me. And she's like, okay. And so that's how it started. It was like just these little exercises that we would do. And then I told her that I was thinking of writing a journal, and I said to help other moms and daughters, like connect, and she was all for it. So it was more out of my own needs of wanting, like to connect with my daughter and do something together that turned into, like, hey, I'm gonna do this and we're gonna share it. And she's like, that is so cool. And that was a while ago, I wanna say, it was like two years ago that we started it. And so I. And now it's about to be released and she changed all her colors because now she's not a little girl. So the colors changed, but the concepts was the same. It's how to pull your relationship, you know, with your kids and be close to them. And there are ways of doing that we just have to be really intentional with what we do.

And everything you're doing is setting such a good example for your children because you did go through a divorce raising three kids having to replace the salary of two people.

Yeah.

And also have the time and energy to be mom.

I know.

That can be a lot. It is. ¿And this is all before you decided to launch your own businesses, right?

Yeah.

Yeah. ¿Did you have a lot of family support around or friend support, or how did you navigate through that time? Because that's a huge era of transformation and perseverance, I know. I'm nine years past divorce, and I feel like I'm just finally, like, setting have a strong foundation for myself again.

Yeah. Yeah. It's tough. I think anyone who's been there knows how difficult it is. I think if I could just say what helped me, you know, by sharing my own experience, I'd say at the time I didn't quite know what I was doing. But looking back, I was building. Building like a village. You know, how people say, it takes a village, you know, so it really.

Does take a village.

And so I was pulling in teachers. I became their best friends. I was like communicate because I knew my kids were going to need a lot of support. And so I reached out to the teachers, I let them know what was going on. So they knew that my kids were going to need some additional support. And then they knew that I was going to be communicating with them So there was that openness of communication. I was reaching out. I mean, my kids were in church, they were in music classes, the sports, everything you can think of. I was just trying to pull that village in and see who would stick. ¿You know, what would stick, what did they like, what did they want to continue to do? And it was very helpful creating that structure, creating the village of people who can come in and help with different things. When it came to my kids, even if it was just a music class once a week through the local community center, it was every week, once a week, with the same person, you know, that came in and was sitting there with my kids and teaching them. So having that consistency, having all these different people that were in, like, role, model roles, being able to come in and work with them. I think for me and my family was very helpful. I have a very small family, so I don't have a lot of, you know, cousins and aunts and uncles. I actually don't have any aunts, uncles, cousins that I can pull from, you know. So it was. It was just me and my small family, my brother, my mom. And that was it. It was just us, you know, trying to figure it out together. But because I did build a village of people in the community, that was really, really helpful. And friends, so my friends had kids. So being able to hang out with them and pull from them back and forth with them on getting some help with the kids was also really helpful.

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Right here's the Sometimes we think we're alone. We think we have to do this all by ourselves. We really don't. Because once you start pulling people into your world and they're there, even if it's just an hour here, an hour there as a tired mom who's working or a mom who's building a business who's trying to build and do something, you need all of that pull from the people around you and you guys get closer to the people. I was pulling in, were pulling me in too. They need help, you know. A lot of friends needed help. So it was like we're pulling from each other in a positive way. Yeah.

That's really amazing. And, I mean, you went from working two jobs now as a now single moment, pulling it together your community to then taking the leap to say i need to go out on my own and start my own business, growing it to over twelve team members in Covid. And then now you have over fifty five.

We do. Yeah. Wow.

¿What was that like? ¿That Leap? ¿Were you scared to leap into the unknown? ¿Had you thought about being a business owner yourself?

I think I've always been a business owner. So I think it started when I was really young. So I think for me it would. It's always been. I think I'm a horrible employee. Yeah, horrible. So I'm very independent. I absolutely love business. I love systems. I love working with people, understanding how to make things work the challenges. So there's lots of studies that show that people who own their own businesses have added. That's really me. You. Because I have the you have to stay challenged or else you get bored, you know. So running a business keeps me challenged and then running this kind of business for me is very fulfilling. So, you know, I am in the mental health space on a whole bunch of levels. I am a huge advocate on accessibility to care for everyone. And because of that, I think there's a whole other level of like of hard work that goes into what I do. I enjoy it. I love it. I'm always thinking of ways of how to help people what can I do. And I truly enjoy it. So I also think that finding something you love is what's going to really help propel people. You know, don't think so much about the money. ¿We all want money, right? We all want to take care of our bills and take care of our homes and own a nice home, and we all want that. But I honestly believe that if you find something that you really love and you can catapult that, it's going to amount to something that's going to take care of you. Especially if it's taking care of others. ¿Right? So there's like this energy that we give out. People call it karma, people find your purpose. And if your purpose is giving, you're going to get it back. So I almost feel like if you're doing something for others, you're going to get it back tenfold.

And thinking through that and thinking through how you've been able to use your own experiences along with, of course, all of the expertise you've learned, the degrees certifications that you have the work that you've done to help people. I imagine that it was really easy to make those connections with people who needed help because you could share your own stories of adversity. And I don't know how much of that you share on your company website. ¿Right? Or how much can you share without feeling like you're sharing too much. So that your clients know that they have somebody who really cares and understands what they've been through.

Yeah. I think there is a boundary there. So as therapists we are taught, you know that we don't want to share too much because it's not the client's job to take care of us. It's our job to take care of them. But we do share enough to be able to connect. So I think my work, you know, in domestic violence is where, because I was working with women and kids who were going through what I had gone through and to be able to share that with a mom that you know what your little girl is going through this. But I went through it. So don't worry so much. Look at me. I'm doing fine and your little girl's gonna be okay, you know. So it was almost like, sharing those tiny little bits and pieces like, oh, wow, You know, because they're worried, you know, moms are worried about their kids. So it's giving them reassurance that it's going to be okay. At the end of the day, I went through it, and you're going through it right now. And at the end of the day, it'll be okay. And we're going to get through this together. So I don't have to share my whole story, but that little tiny bit is enough. And I think. I think that it's so interesting because that as a therapist, right, We want to connect with our clients and share these little tidbits. But I think like, right now I'm writing a book, and it was about sharing our story. And I didn't know. ¿I just kind of started it, you know? I was like, I'm going to start this book. I have this story to tell. And one day I want my kids to have something they can read and really understand what I went through, but being able to share that. And I've been posting things, you know, on social media. And I have had people reach out to me and say, this is what's going on with me. And some of them have been long term people that I've known for many, many years who have never shared anything with me. And we've gotten on the phone. And they're sharing these deepest, darkest secrets. ¿And one of them asked her why now, like why are you sharing all this with me? And she said, i just watched some of your videos on social media and you're sharing some private stuff. And I know you're not going to judge me. And I thought, that's exactly why I'm sharing is because our story becomes a healing for other people. Because now they know that. You know what I'm not alone. She went through it. And the more we share, especially as women, the more we share what we went through, other women are going to be able to connect with you and understand that they're not alone. We all have so much in common. And if we all just share that, we would know and we'd be able to connect from that, from our shared stories.

Yeah, absolutely. Okay, so you have a journal. You have. You're writing a book, and you've had other books.

I believe not this would be the first one.

So okay, yes. You have mothers, perhaps planned.

Yes. I do. I do. Yes. I am writing a book right now. The first one will be released in January and along with the journal. Yes.

And you have your business and you have your nonprofit. And you're also mom.

Yeah.

And friend and daughter and sister.

Yes.

And so many things. How do you. I don't want to use the word balance because there is no such thing.

¿Right?

You have to just pick and choose. ¿But how are you managing all of these balls that you have in the air?

Oh, yeah. It's a lot. Sometimes it's a lot, but, you know, it's for me, it's. It's a choice like I choose to have all of these balls, you know. So for me, like. It's Like, I'm choosing this. And if I need to let some go, it's okay. And I'll focus on less if I need to. Because we all have a different capacity. Right. And it's okay that sometimes some of us can only do one thing at a time or just two things at a time. Right now, I haven't always been where I'm at. Right now. Right now, I can handle quite a bit. And I think it's just the experience of living life and handling quite a bit as a single mom of three kids working two jobs. I think that helped all of our experience accumulate to something, you know. So looking back, I'm like, that probably helped me with being able to manage everything. And I think I have a purpose. So I honestly think every little project I'm working on is very purposeful. Like, you know, my story is there to share for others to share. ¿It's not going to make me money? Probably not. You know, you put it on Amazon, sell a few copies. It's more because I'm sharing my story and I want others to share and know the healing that can happen from sharing the for profit that we have. That takes. Insurance, that takes. Medi Cal is also helping. And I love that. I love working with my employees. I love building it. I love creating new programs. The nonprofit is tons of fun because we're actually looking for ways to create things for people out of nothing. We have no money. We have nothing. ¿What do we do? You know, fundraisers. We get the word out. That's fun, too. And then I have the journal which I did for my daughter. So that was really fun. And then I have the. I have a directory that I'm working on. That I think I told you about get Healthy Directory, which is basically just for clients and it's totally free. So it's something that's going to be released. It's for clients and for providers to connect and be able to find the kind of doctor or therapist that you need very quickly. You know, no barriers to care. So that's what we're trying to create is just no barriers ways of people to people to connect to people that they need, build that village that they need. So it's all coming from just things that I enjoy doing that I feel are going to be impactful to the world and to people. And I think that's why I can handle it all. You know.

El programa nacional de becas a ser de McDonald's ha beneficiado a más de 17.000 estudiantes con más de 35 millones de dólares en becas otorgadas. Esta es una historia de generación de estudiantes que les mostraron a los que dudaban que podemos hacer más porque se sabe que la educación de uno ilumina el camino para los que siguen. Esta es una historia de progreso. Y el siguiente capítulo lo escribes tú. Aprende más en McDonald's com hacer.

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And it's all associated. I think that's one of the things those of us who have add or adhd. We are better as entrepreneurs, but often we have a lot of ideas. So the fact that you're able to, you know, you have a core ethos.

Yes.

And your core values. ¿So everything you're doing is in alignment and that has to make it easier and helps show who you are as a person and also then all of these things as an extension of your brand, right?

Yes, that's exactly it. Yeah.

Gosh. ¿Where do you see yourself going next?

This is it. Yeah. This is it for me. You know, I see. Just growing. I know it's going to expand into other areas of mental health and health and wellness and all of that. I mean, I can't do this forever, but it, you know, this is kind of where I'm at right now and I'm focusing on this and I'm enjoying it. So I don't see myself going anywhere for a while.

¿Nice I just wonder, do your children tell you how proud they are of you? ¿Do any of them want to follow in your footsteps?

Yeah. My son, My oldest is twenty, so he's getting his doctorate. He wants to be a psychologist and youngest wants to be a. He wants to prescribe medication. Not sure if he'll be a psychiatrist or nurse practitioner, but they both want to run a business like mine. Yeah. So my daughter wants to do a nonprofit for cats. Which is interesting, she loves cats. So they definitely are all going to be entrepreneurs. And they're definitely going for their degrees, you know, in higher education, to work in the field of mental health or healthcare. Yeah. So I know that was an influence for them.

Oh, that's so beautiful.

Yeah, it is nice. When I say it out loud, you know, I get to say that out loud.

It sounds pretty nice. Yeah, I think, particularly since Covid, there has been a lot more information, people have felt more comfortable sharing their truth and seeking help when needed. But for the people who are still reluctant, what are some things that you would say to them to help them feel like they can take that step of reaching out using a health directory or just finding somebody they can confide in as a friend and maybe eventually going to therapy. Because I know that after I got divorced, I went into another relationship that was too fast. And I shouldn't have done that. But I was. I didn't know anything, but being in serious relationships my whole life. And the one really good thing I got out of that was going to therapy and discovering a lot more about the kind of relationships I got in. And what were those triggers and having to work through a lot of that stuff. So I think that it's really good when people can find that courage. But sometimes they do need a little nudge and somebody to help them. ¿So what would you say to that person who might be listening? Who's like, I don't need therapy. ¿But they still have, then they still have those feelings and so where can they go?

That happens a lot, especially depending on the person's culture, you know. Have they ever been in therapy or not therapy, you know, with people from my culture, you know, I'm Mexican, American for men. It can be very taboo, you know. We've always had that barrier of being able to get people into therapy, and it can be tough. And I think the way that I used to convince people when I would talk to them is just try it just try it one time come in with an open mind. And, you know, a lot of people think that therapy is only for a certain type of person, but it really isn't like. People can come for anything. They can come for high stress. They can come for things like, we know, depression, anxiety or PTSD. But also just to have a sounding board to figure out why you're feeling this way. ¿Like if something just doesn't feel right, but you don't know what it is and you don't think it's important enough to go see a doctor or a therapist about, well, just make that phone call because exploring it with a therapist and trying to figure out, like, why do you struggle to leave your house? ¿Why do you struggle to get up in the mornings? ¿Why do you have this overall sadness about you? You know, and especially women at a certain age, I don't think we realize that when we're hitting our mid Forties, early fifties, there are changes that are going on within us that we ignore us as women. We ignore quite a bit when it comes to ourself and our health, you know, we ignore. We push it to the side. There's other things to take care of, but we really have to start identifying that, hey, my neck and my shoulders are constantly in pain. ¿Why is that our body is talking to us? ¿You know, why do I have headaches all the time? Of course you need to go to the doctor and rule things out. But a lot of times the doctors will be like, oh, take these pills, take the ibuprofen, You know, relax a little bit. But then that's when you make that phone call to a therapist because our body is telling us something and we need to figure out what it is. And we deserve to figure out what our body is trying to say to us. So I would say, make that phone call just to explore. It's like an explorative call, you know, to see what's going on and to see if we can figure it out together. And it's really nice. I mean, as a therapist being in therapy off and on, finding the right therapist is really nice. You feel supported, you feel heard. You can talk about anything. You know, that's part of the village could be. Part of that village is just finding that person that you can talk to and rely on every single week if you need them.

That's a really great way to look at it. It's not something you have to do because there's something wrong. It's something that you do to get support from somebody who is in your village and on your side.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

That's really nice. So we've talked a lot about the different things that you've been doing, the motivations that you had, what you went through, how that's now translated into the inspiration you've given to your kids to pursue all of these wonderful fields. You know all different ways that they can. They're periphery to what you're doing, so they're not falling exactly in your footstep, but they're finding their own path within the work. You have so many things coming out. We'll need to know all about them when you're ready to release them to the world so that we can let people know all about it.

Thank you.

Get Healthy Directory is what you're building. Is that.

El programa nacional de becas hacer de McDonald's ha beneficiado a más de 17.000 estudiantes con más de 35 millones de dólares en becas otorgadas. Esta es una historia de generaciones de estudiantes que les mostraron a los que dudaban que podemos hacer más porque se sabe que la educación de uno ilumina el camino para los que siguen. Esta es una historia de progreso. Y el siguiente capítulo lo escribes tú. Aprende más en McDonald's com diagonal hacer.

Anybody in the healthcare industry so it could be mental health, doctors, wellness, people like nutritionists. Anything that you need will be there and you can go in and find someone that's local to you. The goal is to make it easy for people so in the past. And I don't know what in what we find in mental health is. It's very difficult for anyone with Medi Cal to find a therapist that accepts their insurance and has immediate availability. So that's what this platform is. Is they're out there. We're out there. They're out there. It's just letting the world know about it. And so that's what the directory will be is basically letting people know that you can go on this directory. Look up any doctor that you want, any therapist, you want any wellness person that you want. And whoever takes your insurance will pop up with their availability because there are people out there that are available. It's just how do you connect with them. If not every doctor is marketing themselves, you know how are they being able to reach out. So if this is free, and people just need to sign up. You know, all of the providers can sign up for free and the clients can have access for free. We should be able to get a lot of people to be able to join and make those connections beautiful.

What a gift you're giving and coming out of the adversity that you've had to experience, but finding your path when you were such a young age, fifteen helping people, seeing the impact you could have on so many. So, thank you so much for sharing on your brand amplified. This is one of my favorite types of stories I love hearing about people and why you do what you do and what you're putting into the world. We need so much more of that.

We appreciate that. Thank you so much. Of course.

And, Crystal, we will have your main website in the show notes.

Oh, great.

Always like to ask my guests. One last question. ¿Do you have a favorite quote mantra motto verse poem?

You know, one quote that I heard actually from my mom and I use it, and it was, i did the best with what I had. And I think going back when we give ourselves a hard time, I should have done better. It could have done this. I could have done that. You know, I think those things too, You know, like I had three kids and I should have done this better, but then I think, wow, I had three kids. So like, you know, it's like I did the best that I could with what I had at that time. And I think that's like it's a grounding thing for me, and it reminds me that, you know, what I did my best because every time, every. Every decision I make is the best decision I could make in that moment with what I had whether it was looking back. The greatest decision maybe not, but in that moment it was. So I think we have to remember that we are doing the best that we can in our moments. And we just have to trust that that those little moments that they're perfectly fine, so that I would say that was probably my one of my big ones right now, is because I was raised with that. It's almost giving yourself, you know, you're giving yourself, Grace, for what you did in the decision.

Be human. Yeah. You know.

Yeah.

To be infallible like we're all people we need to realize that we have to give ourselves that. Grace, that's fantastic.

Yeah.

Well, thank you again. And thank you to everybody who's listening to this episode, thinking about how you're going to go into the next part of your life. ¿Whether it's the next decade, the next year, whatever the case may be, your next career, your next family? ¿Where can you call on your village for help? ¿Who do you have in your village? ¿And are there holes that can be filled with new people? Just some things to think about. And of course you're going to check out all of Crystal's resources on her website, which we will have in the show notes. So have a beautiful day, a beautiful week, until we come back again to speak to another amazing soul like Crystal Guzman.

Thanks for listening or watching to this episode of your brand amplified. Don't forget to leave us a rating or review on your favorite podcast Listening platform. And if you want to learn more, check us out at yourbrandamplified.

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