Colors of Austin Counseling

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Colors of Austin Counseling Colors of Austin Counseling is an intentionally diverse multidisciplinary group therapy practice.

We are social justice oriented in our practice and inclusive in our work within the community. Our goal is to reduce the barriers that exist when it comes to mental health support and to provide high quality clinical services to all regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, ability and/or socioeconomic status.

National Coming Out Day was Sunday, and October is LGBTQ+ History Month.Coming out isn’t one day. For a lot of q***r and...
10/16/2026

National Coming Out Day was Sunday, and October is LGBTQ+ History Month.

Coming out isn’t one day. For a lot of q***r and trans people of color, it’s a negotiation that happens again and again: at work, at church, at the family table, in the doctor’s office. Sometimes the choice feels like being fully known or staying close to the people who raised you. That’s a lot to carry.

What we want you to know:

- You get to decide who knows, when, and how. Not coming out to someone isn’t dishonesty. It can be safety.
- You can love your family and grieve how they’ve responded. Both can be true.
- Your culture and your q***rness aren’t in competition.

COAC is an affirming practice, and many of our clinicians share the identities of the people they serve. If you want support where you don’t have to explain yourself first, link in bio.

If you’re in crisis, call or text 988. LGBTQ+ young people (ages 13–24) can also reach The Trevor Project 24/7 at 1-866-488-7386.

10/15/2026

Hispanic Heritage Month closes today. Some things don’t close with it.

There’s a difference between a therapist who translates your words and one who understands the language your feelings are in. ‘Me da pena.’ ‘Aguantar.’ ‘Echarle ganas.’ Some of what we carry doesn’t come across the same in English.

10/14/2026

“I’m so OCD about my desk.”

OCD isn’t a personality trait, and it usually isn’t about neatness. It’s a cycle: an intrusive thought that feels urgent and wrong, followed by a ritual (seen or unseen) to make the anxiety stop, for a little while.
Some forms people rarely recognize:
    •    Checking, over and over, whether you said something offensive
    •    Replaying conversations in your head to make sure you did nothing wrong
    •    Unwanted thoughts about harming someone you love, which horrify you precisely because you’d never want that
    •    Needing something to feel “just right” before you can stop
    •    Constant reassurance-seeking: “Are you sure you’re not mad at me?”

In a lot of our families, these experiences get brushed off as nerves, being too sensitive, or “just how you are.” OCD is treatable, and you don’t have to explain it perfectly to start.

Maria Gregg, LCSW, offers treatment for OCD and intrusive thoughts at Colors of Austin Counseling. If some of these patterns feel familiar, you can reach out to explore whether working with Maria might be a good fit.

It’s OCD Awareness Week. Link in bio to request a consult.

In Episode 06 of Colors Out Loud, Marissa Lecaros, LMFT, Clinical Director at Colors of Austin Counseling, and Alex DeHo...
10/13/2026

In Episode 06 of Colors Out Loud, Marissa Lecaros, LMFT, Clinical Director at Colors of Austin Counseling, and Alex DeHoff, LCSW-S, PMH-C, explore body image across fertility, pregnancy, and postpartum.

Drawing from both clinical expertise and lived experience as mothers, they discuss how disordered eating and body image struggles can resurface during the perinatal period, why experiences like weigh-ins, food rules, and postpartum recovery can bring up old narratives, and what meaningful support can look like.

From self-compassion and parts work to collaborative treatment teams, doulas, and pelvic floor therapy, they unpack what it can mean to care for both the parent and the baby.

At the heart of the conversation: supporting a baby’s well-being also means supporting the person nourishing and caring for them.

Episode 06 is out now. Listen at the link in bio.

Today is Indigenous Peoples’ Day.Austin sits on land that has long been home to the Tonkawa, Lipan Apache, Comanche and ...
10/12/2026

Today is Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

Austin sits on land that has long been home to the Tonkawa, Lipan Apache, Comanche and Coahuiltecan peoples, among many others. Indigenous people are still here, in this city and on our own team.

For many of us in Mexican American and Latino families, Indigenous ancestry is close and complicated at the same time: something our grandparents didn’t talk about, something erased on paperwork, something we’re still learning to name. On Episode 2 of Colors Out Loud, Lina and Claudia talked about exactly that: tracing where you come from and making room for both grief and pride.

A few ways to honor today that go further than a post:

- Learn whose land you live on (native-land.ca)
- Support Indigenous-led organizations in Central Texas
- Listen more than you speak

Today, we’re listening.

This year’s World Mental Health Day theme is ‘Lived Experiences Heard: Real Voices, Real Change.’It’s the reason COAC ex...
10/09/2026

This year’s World Mental Health Day theme is ‘Lived Experiences Heard: Real Voices, Real Change.’

It’s the reason COAC exists. Many of our clinicians became therapists after years of not seeing themselves in the therapy room, as clients or as providers. Lived experience doesn’t replace training. It changes what a therapist notices, what you don’t have to explain, and who feels safe enough to come back for a second session.

Swipe for what a few of our clinicians wish more people understood about being heard.

One local update worth knowing: on September 15, Travis County approved Central Health’s budget with $54 million in new mental health and crisis-care investments, including 22 inpatient psychiatric beds, 10 psychiatric emergency bays, and a future crisis center. That’s funded, not built yet.

Until it opens, if you or someone you love is in crisis, call or text 988, or call Integral Care’s 24/7 crisis line at 512-472-4357.

Real voices, real change. We’re glad to be part of both.

Still have HSA or FSA funds left this year? 🌿
Put them toward real healing before the year ends.You may already understa...
10/08/2026

Still have HSA or FSA funds left this year? 🌿
Put them toward real healing before the year ends.
You may already understand your patterns. Maybe you’ve talked about them for years. An EMDR Intensive gives you focused, uninterrupted time to heal what weekly therapy keeps circling back to: hours of deep work over a few days, instead of 50 minutes at a time over many months.
Each intensive pairs EMDR with IFS, plus shame resilience or Somatic Experiencing depending on your clinician. Sessions are in person at our Austin offices.
✨ Half-Day · 3 hours
✨ 3-Day · 12 hours (most recommended)
✨ 5-Day · 20 hours
💳 We accept HSA & FSA cards
🗓 Payment plans are available for our 3-Day and 5-Day Intensives, and we also accept Klarna and Affirm
📄 Superbills are provided for your preparation and integration sessions
📌 Reserve your dates with a 50% deposit
FSA funds often have to be used by the end of your plan year, so now is a great time to put them toward your healing. Check with your plan for details.
Not sure an intensive is the right step? Your consultation helps us decide together. Book through the link in bio.

10/07/2026

Depression doesn’t always look like staying in bed.

Sometimes it looks like still going to work, still cooking for everyone, still answering every text, and feeling nothing while you do it. In a lot of our families, the person holding everyone together is the last one anyone checks on. Sometimes that includes themselves.

Today is National Depression Screening Day, in the middle of Mental Illness Awareness Week. Two questions clinicians often start with:

Over the last two weeks, how often have you had little interest or pleasure in doing things?

Over the last two weeks, how often have you felt down, depressed, or hopeless?

If the honest answer is ‘more days than not,’ that isn’t a diagnosis. It’s a reason to talk to someone.

We have clinicians with openings this month, including sliding-scale options with our intern team. Link in bio to request a consult.

If you’re in crisis or thinking about ending your life, call or text 988, any time.

In Episode 5, Roy Mong, LPC-Associate (supervised by Marissa Rivera, MA, LPC-S), and Lina Guerrero, MPA, LCSW, LCDC, get...
10/06/2026

In Episode 5, Roy Mong, LPC-Associate (supervised by Marissa Rivera, MA, LPC-S), and Lina Guerrero, MPA, LCSW, LCDC, get personal about spiritual and religious trauma.

Roy shares how a path that began with faith in high school and a career in evangelical missions eventually became an experience of spiritual abuse. Lina reflects on growing up Catholic, the rituals and community that offered comfort, and the rigidity and hypocrisy that ultimately led her to question what she had been taught. Together, they explore the complicated ways religion can shape identity, belonging, trust, and healing.

Episode 5, “The Ceremony, Ritual and the Sacred: Rebuilding Ground After Religious Harm,” is out now.

Listen at the link in bio.

You don’t need to be an artist. You need a Tuesday night and a willingness to leave your phone in a locker.Over six week...
10/05/2026

You don’t need to be an artist. You need a Tuesday night and a willingness to leave your phone in a locker.
Over six weeks of The Slow Hours, you’ll work in ink, collage and printing, and by the last night you’ll bind your own book to hold all of it. Every week starts with a chapter of Jenny Odell’s How to Do Nothing and a conversation led by our therapists. Then we make things.

You’ll leave with more than the book: a stillness practice to take home, attention you can actually train, practice saying no to the scroll, and twenty familiar faces.

Your lead facilitator is Vanessa Flores Newton, LCSW-S, our CEO and founder. She’s a Daring Way™ Trained Facilitator with more than 10 years in social work and experience leading art-based practices and creative expression.

It’s not therapy, and it’s not an art class. It’s two hours a week that nobody can interrupt.

Starts Tuesday, October 13
6:30–8:30 PM at The Analog Room, East Austin
Six Tuesdays through Nov 17 · 20 seats · $330
Analog Room members get 15% off.

Register at the link in bio.

Address

5800 BERKMAN Drive
Austin, TX
78723

Opening Hours

Monday 8am - 8pm
Tuesday 8am - 8pm
Wednesday 8am - 8pm
Thursday 8am - 8pm
Friday 8am - 5pm
Saturday 9am - 3pm

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