Irwin Castro, AMFT

2022 Scholarship Recipient

Irwin Castro, AMFT, is a dedicated therapist who has been focusing on helping children, teens, young adults, and families. He received his M.A. in Clinical Psychology, Specialization in Marriage and Family Therapy, Applied Behavior Analysis Track from The Chicago School of Professional Psychology — Los Angeles, in August 2021. He also received a B.A. in Psychology from California State University, Northridge, in December 2015.

It was after earning his degree from CSUN that he was first exposed to working in the field of psychology, providing ABA services, and working with children with autism. He then started working at Five Acres in Altadena, California as a residential treatment counselor in 2017 and realized that working with children and teens in the foster-care system was his passion and calling. He then was able to complete his traineeship for graduate school at Five Acres, where he solidified his passion with working within the community, mental-health system with children, teens, and families. During his traineeship he experienced personal grief and loss within his immediate family, instilling the importance of addressing one’s mental health and our duty to be compassionate toward all our clients.

He later had the privilege to transition as a full-time employee and associate for Five Acres in November 2021 (supervised by Karina Ramos, LMFT) as a Bilingual (Spanish) Floater Clinician. Throughout his experience as a therapist, he has been able to help clients dealing with issues such as grief and loss, anxiety, depression, trauma, stress, relationship issues, sexual abuse, domestic violence, displacement, and LGBTQIA+ issues, via Telehealth and in person. He is looking to expand his knowledge and focus on growing his specialty as a trauma-focused therapist and helping children and teens understand the implication of trauma on one’s life. He currently is building his competencies with different modalities that include Cognitive Behavior Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Family Systems Therapy, and Client-Centered Therapy.

His outlook on life has been shaped by his personal experiences, which derived from his cultural background being of Latin American roots, as a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, a first generation of immigrant parents, and other life problems. He states his ideologies could be summed up in one phrase that, “helping others is like teaching them to float in the sea of life when all they could think about is not drowning.”

Need-based Annual Membership Scholarships Include:

Licensed Scholarship, which includes: SFV-CAMFT Membership and State CAMFT Membership, free attendance to SFV-CAMFT Membership Meetings in 2022, lunch with the President, and an article introducing recipient and their practice in the Connections newsletter.

Pre-licensed Scholarships, which includes: SFV-CAMFT Membership and State CAMFT Membership, free attendance to SFV-CAMFT Membership Meetings in 2022, lunch with the President, and an article introducing recipient and their practice in the Connections newsletter.