Clients Reclaim Their Stories with Claudia Hernandez Vargas
When Claudia Hernandez Vargas was growing up in Southeast Austin, she was no stranger to clinical settings. Her father had a kidney disease and needed a transplant, so she and her family spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to support themselves and each other during his recovery.
She later decided to study social work to help others facing life challenges, which has made her realize how many resources could have helped their family that they simply weren’t aware of.
“I wanted to help others in this community to better the resources and let people know what’s available… I decided on counseling because it is direct work, and I love meeting the clients,” she said.
When Claudia was interviewing for internships in graduate school, she applied for a position with LifeWorks in Community-Based Counseling, but a friend was offered the position instead. Even as she worked several other jobs in the social work field, she still felt a connection to the agency.
“Even at other jobs, I would refer clients to LifeWorks, because I would always hear really good things about it — the counseling programs and all the resources that were offered. LifeWorks always just had a good taste in my mouth.”
After taking a break for about a year, she decided to apply again—this time for a part-time role—and was offered a full-time position.
“Even [in] the interview process, I was like, ‘Okay, I like how this feels.’ And so, I ended up accepting the full-time offer. Then I learned about everything we do, which is a lot, and it's honestly been amazing,” she said.
Claudia has now worked as a counselor for LifeWorks Youth and Adult Counseling (YAC) program for almost a year. Youth and Adult Counseling provides strengths-based therapeutic services to individuals, groups, and couples, with a particular focus on children and families. Counselors serve up to 26 clients, and Claudia says she has worked with children as young as four years old.
One of the things she appreciates about the agency is that it offers a wide range of services, which makes it much easier to refer clients to supports that they need.
“If they’re looking for work or a GED, it feels so good to know that we have that stuff already here… it definitely breaks down a lot of barriers and makes it easier.”
Jessica Benavides, the program director for the YAC program, shared that it is an honor to work with Claudia. She added that Claudia’s willingness and enthusiasm to work with Spanish-speaking clients was an important skill for the team. Jessica also highlighted how she mentors interns and shares useful effective strategies for administrative tasks with her co-workers.
“She is a passionate advocate for her clients, and her commitment to supporting and inspiring other counselors is unmatched,” she said. “Her work ethic is exceptional, and she consistently goes above and beyond to ensure the best outcomes for everyone she works with.”
Claudia believes that counseling and the work YAC does is important for the mission of solving youth homelessness for a number of reasons.
“A lot of it is increasing their support system and their coping skills so they don’t feel like seeking something that might not be healthy for them,” she said. “A lot of it is a sense of stability that then helps with external stuff… like jobs, money, or housing. So definitely, once they come in, if there’s external stuff we can help with, we do, but if it’s even out of the counselor’s control, we do try to focus on what’s present, what strengths they can acknowledge, anything that they have worked for, so that way they do feel a little bit more confident to handle all the other things that are going on.”
One core value at LifeWorks that especially resonates with Claudia is compassion.
“I'm a very relational person, so I also bring that to my sessions, and with being relational I bring compassion a lot,” she said. “I feel like that has helped me connect with clients, especially the clients that don't want to be here or they feel like they're being forced to be here, or they might think there's something to work on, but they don't actually want to.”
She recalls a client who had experienced domestic violence and was dealing with custody issues, who struggled with shyness and low self-esteem. Over the course of their work together, she was able to regain control of her life.
“She learned how to set boundaries, which was amazing,” Claudia said. “She was doing more stuff for herself. She was hanging out with friends. She was going on walks at least every other morning… I remember there was one week that she was like, ‘I don't have anything to talk about.’ And I was like, ‘That's great; you know, it's okay to not have anything to talk about. You can tell me about the good things that are going on.’”
“It was a lot of trying to make sense of everything she had experienced—not to let that be her whole narrative but to create her own story and enjoy her life again.”
Claudia says that this is her favorite part of her job: seeing the growth and increase of self-confidence that clients experience over the course of their mental health journey.
“I actually told a client yesterday, ‘You’re the reason I love this job.’”
“Noticing how they react whenever I'm acknowledging the stuff that they've worked on, because I definitely do like to let my clients know that all the skills [they’ve] learned, [they] already had them. I'm just showing you that you have them, but you did all the work yourself. Whenever they first start recognizing, ‘You're right, I did do that myself,’ I think that's my favorite thing about doing this work.”
Written by Sophia Ryland, Communications Intern