My Story

I am an autistic Licensed Psychologist and Licensed Specialist in School Psychology (LSSP). I own a group practice in The Woodlands, Texas called Grace Psychological Services as well as the recently launched Grace Autism & Neurodiversity Center.

I am originally from a small town in East Texas, the daughter of Mexican immigrants. My mother tongue is Spanish and I learned English in school. I had wonderful teachers who identified me as being a gifted learner and pushed me to do well academically. When I was in the 5th grade or so, I decided that I wanted to be a psychologist because I would see the adults around me making obviously bad (to me) decisions and I did not understand why that was. I wanted to study humans and learn why they behave the way they do. I graduated with a BA in Psychology in 2000. I then earned a Master’s degree in School Psychology in 2003 from the University of Houston-Clear Lake.

As an early School Psychologist in the Houston area, I was asked to evaluate students to see if they met special education eligibility criteria for Autism. Back then, there was not much training on what Autism is or how to evaluate it. When I went back to school to earn a PhD in School Psychology, I decided that I needed more training and so I sought and completed practicum experience at Texas Children’s Hospital Meyer Center for Developmental Pediatrics and at what was then called MHMRA. I learned a lot about Autism and its presentation. 

I began Grace Psychological Services as a group practice in 2018. I decided to name the practice Grace after the swan, as the swan has a special meaning for me. The colors in our logo around the swan represent diversity in the human experience, e.g., cultural/linguistic background, sexual orientation, neurodiversity. Our mission is to make high quality mental health services more accessible to more people in our community.  We now have many clinicians who serve the members of our community and people across the state of Texas. Our plan is to continue to grow the practice so that we can serve more people.

The mission of the Grace Autism & Neurodiversity Center is near and dear to my heart. The power of the Neurodiversity Affirming Approach is immeasurable and my plan is to continue to educate our community on its advantages.