Vazquez Counseling

What is one word that describes you?

Earlier this year was my 24th anniversary as a Counselor. If I had to pick one word to describe me, it would be “Counselor.” I’ve always had the gift of communicating well with others. Even before I officially became a counselor, I would counsel friends and family.

I started my undergraduate program in Ministry and Leadership at Vanguard University. My goal at the time was to become a pastor, for I felt called by our LORD to lead a congregation. As I progressed, I was really enjoying the Biblical studies I was doing.

This intensive course of study consisted of a new class every five weeks. It was difficult to keep up with all the reading and writing, but I loved it because I was learning a lot about God and the Bible. There was nothing boring about the classes I was taking.

Then, we came to the Preaching and Teaching module, and I very quickly realized that I was terrified of giving sermons. Now, that was kind of funny because in high school, I was on the speech and debate team. We had to prepare several sermons for this class, and we had to present them to our cohort. I was glad that I always stood behind a podium, so my classmates would not see my knees knocking. I honestly don’t know how I got beyond that class. The final exam was a sermon in the school chapel in front of our classmates, as well family and friends that we were all supposed to invite.

Our professor asked us to select a Bible passage to use in our final sermon. I chose to preach a message on the Church of Laodicea, the lukewarm church found in Revelation 3:14-22. When I told my professor the passage I had chosen, he told me it was one of the toughest Bible passages to preach on. Thank you, Professor, I didn’t need any more pressure!

Well, I did a great job on that final sermon, although to this day, I don’t remember the experience. The only reason I know I preached the sermon is because I saw a video of it afterward.

Now, I was questioning whether our LORD had called me to be a pastor. I thought, how can I be a pastor if I’m terrified of giving sermons? Fortunately, God always has a plan.

One of the next courses we had was Pastoral Counseling. As I sat in that class and learned about the art of counseling, I thought to myself, now this I can do. I can sit with someone in a room and help them figure out how to solve their problems. I decided that I would become a counselor.

After I graduated with a degree in Ministry and Leadership, I entered the graduate program in Clinical Psychology. And the rest, as they say is history. I loved the graduate classes, although some of them were very difficult. At times, I asked myself, what I have I done, but I hunkered down and got through the program, thus obtaining a Master’s Degree in Clinical Psychology.

Thus, my career as a counselor began. In a graduate psychology program, we are put in a counseling student practicum in the second semester. Boy, talk about being thrown into the deep of the pool and told, now swim!

I remember my very first client. She was a 15 year old girl who had just arrived from Mexico. She was like a fish out of water. She didn’t dress like the kids in the high school where I first practiced psychotherapy. She didn’t speak English, and she had no idea what American culture entailed. I remember looking at this young girl, wondering how me, a 30-something male, could help her. Boy, she talked my ear off! All I could do was listen. At the end of the semester, she was doing much better, and I learned the most valuable lesson a counselor could learn, how to practice the art of listening.