Victoria Navarro grew up watching “Full House” in a Spanish-speaking household in Hamilton, N.J. She wondered why, unlike the protagonists, her family avoided conflict and open communication.
“It would always be like, ‘Victoria, stop crying, go to the bathroom,’ and things were pushed under the rug,” said Navarro, now a psychologist with a doctorate in clinical psychology. Meanwhile, sitcom families like the Tanners “would talk about their feelings and emotions, and I would think, ‘Why isn’t that happening in my home?’ ”
Through her own therapy and graduate studies, she ultimately learned the answer: her immigrant parents had been in survival mode. They had never been taught how to process their own emotions, much less those of their expressive daughter. Navarro now helps people access their emotions through her private practice, virtually and in person, in Brooklyn.
Learning these lessons “really fueled my passion of wanting to help people feel listened to, cared for,” Navarro said, “and reconnect with those parts that may have been neglected in the past.”
More a people person than a science person
Navarro’s first experience with therapy was at her college counseling center at Syracuse University. Until then, she didn’t have a name for her struggles with anxiety.
Away from home for the first time, she could finally ask, “Okay, who am I?” and start putting the pieces together. That question soon extended to how she saw herself. For so long, Navarro had believed she was a “science person” destined to become a physician. In high school, she excelled in Advanced Placement biology and chemistry. Fueled both by her high-achiever mindset and her parents’ strong emphasis on education, she came to see psychiatry as the highest form of success. That drive led her to the pre-med track in college.
In her sophomore year, Navarro joined a research lab studying alcohol use, which introduced her to the field of psychology at the graduate level. She realized it wasn’t the medical degree she wanted: “I wasn’t passionate about medicine and biology — I was more passionate about understanding and talking to people,” Navarro said.
Embracing psychodynamic therapy
In graduate school, her drive to understand people on a deeper level drew her to psychodynamic therapy, which emphasizes how the past shapes the present. That approach resonated with her more than cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which focuses on reframing ways of thinking through structured tools.
“You need to understand yourself in order to know what your action plan is,” Navarro explained. While CBT techniques can be helpful for regulating emotions, she sees them as “a band-aid, rather than really knowing the root of the issue and then having that guide what tools work best for you.”
Planning for private practice
During graduate school at William Paterson University in New Jersey, Navarro trained in therapy beginning her second year. She also completed an internship at the Counseling Center at Pace University in New York City. The work was meaningful but exhausting, and she hated asking for paid time off, a reluctance she thinks “came from burnout.”
So after graduating in 2022, Navarro pursued private practice in New York. She applied for a limited permit to see clients under the supervision of a mentor. It was a less common path than hospital fellowships or counseling center roles, but she felt it was a less constraining one. Her supervisor taught her about the business, including marketing, branding and building a website. Navarro savored what private practice seemed to offer: the autonomy to be herself, room for creativity and a healthy work-life balance.
“That work-life balance is so key for me to be the best therapist that I can be, and also to give the highest quality care,” Navarro said. “That’s when I’m the most present, energized and capable, to support my clients.”
Running her practice
Navarro launched her website and private practice in October 2022. While many of her clients are Latinas, her practice overall is diverse. The toughest part of getting going was marketing her services, especially since Navarro chose not to accept insurance. But that meant attracting cash-pay clients – a big barrier, especially among Latinos, a community where therapy and mental health issues still carry a stigma, and where there are many affordability concerns.
“A lot of people don’t realize the investments that come with therapy,” Navarro said. “There are people who can spend $200 on getting nails done, but they don’t want to spend $200 on therapy.”
While she has occasionally been able to offer a sliding scale, Navarro has made it a priority to educate people that mental health care is an investment in themselves — especially with a culturally competent clinician who can provide a safe and welcoming space. She built her first caseload through referrals from past supervisors and word of mouth. Being listed in psychology directories like Zencare, a mental health referral platform, has helped.
Navigating downtime and virtual practice
In private therapy, no client is forever, Navarro says. During the summer slump or the holidays, that means Navarro doesn’t get paid as consistently.
Knowing those predictable slow periods in her practice was a steep learning curve during her first year. She leverages these times to take a well-deserved break and to nurture professional relationships, build referrals and prepare financially.
Her practice initially began fully virtual during the pandemic, and Navarro came to appreciate it for the access it provided. Still, she missed the energy of in-person sessions and decided to return to offering them once a week starting in fall 2023. This month, she started offering sessions twice a week at a new Brooklyn location.
For Navarro, it’s most rewarding to hear her clients making informed decisions. “‘Wow, they’re actually listening to me,’” she recalled saying aloud. One client even wrote a memoir after their sessions together.
Applying her therapy practice at home
Navarro also sees progress closer to home. When she visits family, her mom expresses herself more and also accepts her daughter’s crying more. “I do get kind of called out a lot by my cousins, like, ‘Oh, the therapist is talking,’” she said, laughing.
Her family might never be the Tanners, but that’s all right. Navarro has let go of the fantasy that a big family therapy session — or she — could fix everything.
“I had to work with the frustration of, ‘Okay, maybe we are a little bit dysfunctional, but this is the system that I’m in, and how could I navigate that?” Navarro said. “I’ve learned that … I can shut it off and just be part of the family and just be myself.”
Advice for aspiring entrepreneurs
Build and leverage a professional community: “Connect with other entrepreneurs, maybe get a mentor, somebody that knows the experience that you could bounce your ideas off of,” Navarro says.
Being an entrepreneur requires resilience: “There are so many highs and lows,” Navarro said. “Knowing that this is not the traditional stable job, patience and the ability to keep showing up for yourself when things feel uncertain is so needed.”
Plan a marketing strategy: Navarro had heard opening a private practice was as simple as launching a website and announcing she was open for business. However, “that wasn’t the case,” she says. She quickly realized there was a steep learning curve when it came to attracting clients, especially in an oversaturated field like therapy. Looking back, she says she should have been more strategic with marketing from the start.
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