Leo Esquivel is a mental health coach and advocate.
The son of Mexican immigrants, Esquivel spent the first thirteen years of his life in Parlier, California, a stint that he says were some of the most joyous moments of his life.
“To this day, I still tell my mom that my childhood was so good, that if I died at twelve years old, I would have died a happy kid,” Esquivel shares, a wide grin leaping off his face as he recounts his upbringing.
“My family didn’t have a whole lot, but we had each other, and we had a lot of friends that made our community a special place to grow up.”
Life is Fresno County was good, but when Esquivel was fourteen his parents, burdened by the exorbitant cost of living in California, made the tough decision to leave the West Coast and relocate to Mission, Texas.
“My parents bought a house without even knowing what it looked like. They just knew it was within their budget,” Esquivel says.
A short drive from the U.S.-Mexico border, Mission didn’t have the same weather or attractions that came with living on the West Coast, and while Esquivel initially bristled at the prospect of living down south, eventually he developed an appreciation for The Lone Star State.
“I have to admit that I hated Texas when I first got here. I was giving my parents such a hard time for that decision, but now I love Texas. The state has really grown on me,” Esquivel shares.
An ambivert who thrives in both isolation and social settings, as a teenager Esquivel recalls being shy in the classroom, but once the final bell rang, Esquivel’s congenial nature became evident.
“For a long time, I was known as the shy kid. I just showed up, did my work, and didn’t talk much in class,” Esquivel notes.
“The irony is that once you got me outside the classroom, I became a chatterbox.”
Esquivel’s affable disposition later followed him to college, where he studied kinesiology because he wanted to go into sports medicine.
“I thought about being an athletic trainer and doing something related to sports,” Esquivel says, but the University of Texas-Pan America alum ended up taking courses that enabled him to become a special education teacher, a role that today Esquivel still occupies.
“My goal in working with students with special needs was to give them a great experience. I wanted to teach them how to play sports, be great individuals, and also be contributing members of society,” explains Esquivel, who not long into his time as a special ed teacher began to assume a leadership role as groups of students gravitated toward him for advice.
“The kids wanted to talk about life. A lot of the boys wanted to talk about girls. It was surreal, and I became almost like a counselor to many of them.”
As time elapsed, the empathetic Esquivel relished the chance to connect with younger generations, and it wasn’t long before he started to have exploratory conversations with mentors about just where his diverse skillset could take him.
That’s ultimately why today he is currently enrolled in grad school, studying counseling in hopes of becoming a licensed therapist while simultaneously continuing his role as a special education teacher.
This route has created a hectic schedule for Esquivel, who, as part of his program, must log a certain number of hours working with actual mental health patients.
Fortunately, Esquivel has been able to link up with a private practice in Mission and learn firsthand how to help adults navigate through their mental health issues.
“A lot of the existing clients at this particular practice were kind enough to pick up extra sessions with me,” Esquivel says.
“I work for free because it is part of my internship, but I love it. Getting the opportunity to grow as a professional and help people in the process is so rewarding.”
But there is also another element to Esquivel’s work.
As mentioned, Esquivel’s parents are originally from Mexico, and as is common in Hispanic culture, there is a regular focus on family and tradition, but with this also comes a lack of attention toward mental health, especially as it relates to men, who historically are expected to embody the machismo characteristics of strength, resiliency, and arguably, infallibility.
“In Hispanic culture, emotions are not discussed. We don’t talk about our feelings, especially the men,” Esquivel says.
“A lot of that can be attributed to the fact that we have very traditional gender roles in Mexican culture. As a result, most people grow up with a certain set of expectations for what their life will look like, and there isn’t much of a conversation around why this is the case. We just do in many ways what we think we are supposed to do.”
It’s a cycle that if left unaddressed will continue to afflict many Hispanic men who don’t have an emotional outlet, which is why the work Esquivel does is so crucial.
“For context, I never saw my dad cry. The emotion he typically expressed was anger, and I later learned that anger can be a coping mechanism for depression,” Esquivel says.
“So part of the impact I want to make is helping my culture express their emotions in a healthy way.”
There are not many men who work in mental health, but as a fluent Spanish speaker, throughout his internship Esquivel has already been serving his local community, with countless Hispanic men benefitting from simply being able to talk to someone who both looks and speaks similarly.
“A lot of men feel comfortable talking to someone who is not only a man, but who is also Hispanic as well,” Esquivel affirms.
“And the more people tell me that, the more it starts to click that there is a major need for what I do.”
Esquivel’s impact has already been felt by children with special needs and Hispanic men all throughout Mission, but there is also a third component to Esquivel’s desire to heal the world:
Mental health coaching.
For reference, even after Esquivel graduates this August, he will still need 3,000 additional hours of work with patients before he can become a fully licensed therapist.
This is standard in the mental health field, but for Esquivel, he doesn’t want to delay his ability to have a positive effect on others, which is why he has started a mental health coaching business as he continues to work toward achieving full licensure.
The goal with his business is to help people, not under the guise that he is a therapist, but rather that he can be a source for healing.
“I likely will not become a fully licensed therapist for another 2-3 years, but I still want to help people in the interim,” Esquivel says.
“It would be unethical for me to market myself as a therapist, but since I already have experience working with people, I’m going to go the route of a coach until I secure that licensure.”
Looking ahead, once Esquivel does obtain licensure from the state of Texas, he will then transition into opening his own private practice.
“The goal throughout is to be available to anyone who needs someone to talk to, but eventually I will no longer be Leo the mental health coach, but Leo the licensed therapist,” the Mission resident says.
Yet, in true Esquivel fashion, his ambitions to bring peace and tranquility to others doesn’t end there.
“I also want to merge the work I do as a special ed teacher with my own private practice,” Esquivel begins.
“In an ideal world, in about a decade I will have the funds to allocate toward investing in a commercial property where I will have my therapy business, as well as a coffee shop that employs special needs kids.”
Esquivel’s holistic approach to business and health is awe-inspiring, and if seen through, will become nothing short of legendary.
“I want people who come to my facility to experience firsthand the joy that a lot of kids with special needs exhibit every day; and with my practice, I can hopefully help a lot of people who are struggling tap into that same joy and really begin to experience the best parts of life, from a mental health standpoint,” he explains.
“That would be my way of trying to make the world a little bit better.” QS
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