We're a Latina-founded, BIPOC-led therapy practice rooted in lived experience, cultural understanding, and the belief that healing happens in community. Founded in 2021 by Iliamari Vázquez Houston, LCSW.
With An Open Heart was created because we needed it to exist.
It started in 2021, during a time when the world was reeling from the pandemic and first responders were stretched beyond their limits. Iliamari's husband, a firefighter for a major city, was risking his life daily to serve his community. At home, she was navigating new motherhood with their son, holding down the household, and carrying a weight that no one seemed to be talking about: the families.
We talked a lot about how the pandemic affected first responders and frontline workers. But we didn't talk about the toll it took on the people who loved them—the spouses who carried the anxiety, the children who noticed their parent's exhaustion, the families who needed support but had nowhere to turn.
Iliamari and her husband are both members of the BIPOC community. They knew firsthand what it felt like to navigate systems that weren't built with them in mind, to search for support and come up empty, to need culturally aligned care that understood their lived experience.
So she built it.
With An Open Heart began as a practice for first responders and their families—and for pregnant and postpartum individuals navigating the emotional weight of new parenthood. Because those were the communities that needed support and couldn't find it.
But as the practice grew, so did the calling.
After the first year, Iliamari realized there was more work to be done. She began specializing in working with people healing from generational and cultural expectations—first-generation individuals, cycle breakers, hijos navigating the tension between honoring their parents and creating healthier patterns. People who were learning to set boundaries without betraying their families. People who felt caught between two worlds.
A trauma-informed, culturally responsive group practice where healing happens in community, where you don't have to explain yourself, and where your identity isn't something you leave at the door—it's central to your care.
We create safe, culturally aligned healing spaces where Latine and BIPOC individuals can transform trauma into resilience, break generational cycles, and reclaim their authentic selves through compassionate, evidence-based care rooted in lived experience and community.
We provide trauma-informed, culturally responsive therapy that honors the full complexity of our clients' identities. Through evidence-based modalities delivered in English and Spanish, we support first-generation individuals, BIPOC communities, perinatal parents, and families doing the courageous work of healing.
Warm, welcoming rooms where healing feels safe and real
