On Her Journey:
Justine Astacio, who is of Puerto Rican and Dominican descent and was born and raised in New York City, didn't always know she wanted to be a therapist. In fact, for the longest time, she didn't even think it was possible because she didn't grow up seeing people in her family or community taking on these career paths. She also didn't know anyone in the Latinx community who was actually seeing a therapist. "Therapy is a very new thing for our culture, to even talk about your feelings. In our culture, we were raised to just get over it. Shake it off. Don't talk about how you feel. And therapy, in essence, looked like an old, 70-year-old woman with gray hair," she said. "We never saw ourselves as therapists, so there's not a lot of us. That's a big reason why it's so hard to find us, because there's not a lot of us. This industry in and of itself is new to us. For people of color as a whole, it's new. Now that people are talking about it more, mental health is now more important. People are seeing the benefits of it. Now people are starting to search for us, but there's not a lot of us."
Because Astacio didn't come across therapists of color growing up, she didn't really think it was possible, so she went to college and did her undergrad in marketing. Because so many people in her family were working in the Department of Education, she was encouraged to get a job there and went on to get her master's in school counseling. "What ended up happening was while I was in the [Department of Education] for a little bit, I went back to school and stumbled on a mental health program because it was one of the ones listed, and that's when I actually realized that I can actually have my own practice and that I can actually do this for a living and help make the world a better place," she said.
What She Does:
After receiving her advanced master's in psychology, Astacio started working as a licensed therapist in private practice, something her family didn't think she could do but were eventually impressed by. But through her own spiritual journey, she started to work with holistic modalities like meditation, breathwork, and mindfulness tools that really helped her heal. She wanted to find a way to share these tools with clients while still being able to work as a licensed therapist. She also started getting into other parts of wellness such as fitness and saw a connection with physical health, mental health, emotional health, and spiritual health, so she decided to start her own business called Lotus Theory, a network of holistic services that offers everything from talk therapy to lifestyle and wellness changes to help clients get clarity, create balance, and transform their lives. The structure of the business also allows her to accept insurance for therapy clients. Her mission has been to help clients — WOC especially — achieve holistic health and overall balance.
Astacio, who does not claim to be an intuitive, does see herself as a healer, in the sense that all psychotherapists are essentially healers. While she doesn't provide things like energy or tarot-card readings in her sessions, she does offer meditations and teach clients holistic tools that can help them break out of patterns and improve their lives. "To have some of our Latino culture and practices come into a holistic approach that can be used for mental health, I think that's absolutely amazing because it also inspires us as a culture. We all have that aunt or that abuela who was really into it. So again, it really goes back to being familiar with these practices and allowing you to be more comfortable within," she said. "Holistic healing also allows you to remind yourself of how strong your mind and body are if you take the time to listen to them and take care of them. We are very powerful."
Where to Find Her:
@lotustheoryny
