BIPOC Therapists in Boston Area Via Telehealth and in-person in Western MA
Meet Our Team
Colorful Resilience is a Queer-Afro-Latina-owned for-profit startup company providing outpatient mental health services -primarily, but not exclusively- to BIPOC, LGBTQ+, First Generation, and/or immigrant folks in Western MA (in person) and virtually anywhere in MA.
Our Current Colorful Resilience Team Members Identify As:
%
BIPOC
%
PART OF THE LGBT COMMUNITY
%
EITHER AN IMMIGRANT OR FIRST GENERATION
%
BILINGUAL
Mayrena Guerrero, LMHC
(She/Her)
Founder and CEO
Mayrena Guerrero, LMHC
Mayrena is an immigrant originally from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. She moved to the USA in 2005 to pursue her master’s degree. Mayrena has a BS in Clinical Psychology from Universidad Católica Santo Domingo and a MS in Mental Health Counseling from Fitchburg State University. Mayrena worked for many years in outpatient community mental health before starting her private practice in 2015. Mayrena founded Colorful Resilience LLC in February 2022 in order to help meet the outpatient mental health needs of the various communities she has been providing services to throughout her career. Mayrena identifies as Queer. She lives with her child in Western Massachusetts. Mayrena speaks openly of all her intersectionalities in order to normalize conversations about them.
“All of my different identities paint a picture of who I am. I am proud of every single one of them”, she says.
Fun fact about Mayrena: “English is my second language and to this day I can read an email multiple times and still manage to send it out with a few spelling mistakes. It’s embarrassing, but I’ve learned to live with it. I call myself The Typo Queen!”
Kerrie Wert, BA
(She/Her)
Executive Assistant
Kerrie Wert, BA
Fun fact about Kerrie: “I am a singer in a local band, and love to connect with my musical/creative side. The people I perform with are my best friends and it brings me so much joy to share our art with the world and bring joy to the people we’re performing for!”
Holly McMahon, LMHC
(She/Her)
Clinician
Holly McMahon, LMHC
Holly (she/her) was born and raised in Connecticut and moved to Massachusetts in 2015 to begin her career. She received her bachelor’s degree in Psychology at Central Connecticut State University. She earned her Master’s degree in Mental Health Counseling from Teachers College, Columbia University and is now a Licensed Mental Health Counselor. Holly identifies as queer and she specializes in working with people within the LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer) community. She has seven years of experience working with people who are questioning their identities, navigating a gender transition process, and those who seek a safe space to be their authentic selves and work on challenges that impact their mental health. Holly does not work exclusively with the LGBTQ+ community and brings multicultural competence to working with clients of all identities.
Fun fact about Holly: She has a dog named Sadie who is an Australian Cattle dog mix and is learning to garden!
Dorimar Diaz, LICSW
(She/Her)
Clinician
Dorimar Diaz, LICSW
Laura Cos, LMHC
(She/Her)
Clinician
Laura Cos LMHC
Laura (she/her) was born and raised in the Greater Springfield area of Massachusetts and earned her Master’s Degree at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Her experience includes individual and group therapy with the adult population who struggle with depression, anxiety, Bipolar I and II Disorders, trauma, substance abuse, and more. She also has experience working in the residential setting with adults struggling with co-occurring substance abuse and mental health issues. Laura implements an eclectic approach with a heavier focus on concepts and techniques from the evidence-based practices of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Dialectical Behavior Therapy. Having completed trauma-informed care and cultural competency training, she incorporates these skills when necessary and appropriate. Laura strongly believes in having a strengths-based, person-centered focus at the foundation of her practice offering a safe, non-judgmental space in her collaborative work with clients.
Fun fact about Laura: “I grew up in Western Massachusetts, worked in the Boston and Middlesex areas for some years, and currently live in Central Massachusetts with my husband in our full house of a toddler and three dogs! I have very much enjoyed getting to know what other areas have to offer and always love learning more and gaining exposure to different experiences and people.” Bonus fact: “I love to laugh and find most of my joy in sharing laughs with others!”
Janet Namono, M.Ed, LICSW
(She/Her)
Clinician
Janet Namono, M.Ed, LICSW
Namono is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker practicing with children, adolescents and families in Massachusetts. She received her education from Makerere University, Kampala Uganda, University of Massachusetts, Amherst and Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts. Namono was born and raised in Entebbe, Uganda and spent her earlier work-life as a Copy Editor at a major daily newspaper in Kampala before moving to the United States.
“As an immigrant from other lands and cultures, I live in intersectional realities every day and thus compassionately hold space for the different identities with whom I intersect. The work I do with children and families really enhances that innate love for people and service for the diverse communities amongst us.”
Elizabeth Aguirre Shurman, LICSW
(She/They)
Clinician
Elizabeth Aguirre Shurman, LICSW
Elizabeth (Liz) identifies as a queer, anti-racist, human of Mexican descent. Elizabeth is deeply invested in the radical liberatory power of healing intergenerational trauma. She believes that unjust, oppressive, harmful systems have left scars on us all. When we choose to invest in our own therapy/healing work, the benefits can be passed on like an heirloom. Elizabeth knows that everyone has the right to be themself, work with what they have available to them, and ask for help integrating their inner world with their outer world. Elizabeth’s commitment to non-violence means doing the on-going work of understanding and disrupting the cycles of violence that exist.
Elizabeth appreciates working with a variety of people, a variety of gender expressions, a variety of life stages, primarily adolescents and adults. Part of becoming a therapist is her endless interest in the human condition. She says, “Growing up in the midwest suburbs of Detroit, I didn’t have a strong sense of belonging. I felt like an outsider a lot of the time. When I was first introduced to therapy as an adolescent, that safe, secure relationship helped me explore parts of myself and expanded my meaning of belonging. Everyone wants to belong!”.
Elizabeth completed a masters degree in social work at New York University in 2007, practiced social work in urban hospitals and schools for many years while living in Brooklyn, until deciding to explore a different quality of life in Western MA. As a resident of Western MA since 2015, Elizabeth loves living here.
Fun facts: Elizabeth enjoys art, music, yoga and nature in her free time. As a parent of two young children, she also enjoys rest and coffee.
Tiffany Benford, LICSW
(She/They)
Clinician
Tiffany Benford, LICSW
Tiffany believes that healing is both an act of personal empowerment and resistance to societal oppression. As a licensed clinical social worker and trauma specialist, Tiffany has made it her life’s work to help clients heal from traumatic experiences so they can realize their full potential and live their best lives. As a queer Latinx woman, Tiffany is passionate about working with people of color as well as members of the LGBTQIA+ community through a framework that is intersectional, anti-racist, and feminist. She is an activist and trained restorative justice practitioner. As such she has experience working with other social justice activists and organizers who are navigating the impacts of secondary trauma and community violence.
Tiffany is adept at helping clients build healthy coping skills, explore their racial and/or sexual identities, and process trauma through the use of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction, Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Compassion Focused Therapy, Strengths-Based Therapy, DBT and Narrative Therapy. Tiffany is committed to providing a safe, nonjudgmental space where clients will be empowered to move beyond surviving as they find their voice and learn to be their most authentic selves.
Vaughn Flinchbeil, LICSW
(They/Them)
Clinician
Vaughn Flinchbeil, LICSW
Originally born in the Philippines, Vaughn grew up in upstate New York and spent much of their adulthood in Salt Lake City, Utah. They moved to Western Mass in 2019 in order to pursue rural life with their cats Florence and Clementine. Vaughn is neurodivergent, queer, and non-binary. They received their bachelor’s in International Studies from the University of Utah and a Masters in Social Work from Smith College. Additionally, they are certified as a yoga instructor (RYT-200) through the Yoga Alliance as well as being in mentorship with meditation teacher Devon Hase.
Vaughn began their career working with individuals struggling with substance use disorders. They also worked in crisis, hospital, and community mental health settings before beginning private practice in 2020. These days, they specialize in offering therapy to the LGBTQ community in addition to folks practicing non-monogamy and the kink community. They also have extensive experience treating complex trauma, including religious trauma. In addition, Vaughn enjoys supporting clients with regard to ADHD and autism. They work with individual adults, older teens, couples, and groups. As a therapist, Vaughn seeks to create a space where the entirety of the individual can safely unfold and be witnessed. In their spare time, Vaughn studies Hindi, Urdu, and French.
Emily Ballard, LMHC
(She/Her)
Clinician
Emily Ballard, LMHC
Emily’s work focuses on supporting people in radically accepting themselves and their lives, improving their family’s emotional health trajectories, and positively influencing their communities through congruent, honest, out-loud living. She aims, moment by moment and in real-time, to make the spaces she occupies anti-racist, LGBTQIA-affirming, and ethical non-monogamy-affirming spaces. The psychological theories she most prominently applies in her work are Existential Theory and Humanistic Theory. She also focuses on and integrates into her work the ways in which we hold emotion in our physical bodies.
Emily views emotional healing work through a lens of collective healing; she believes that if we do the work to heal ourselves internally and in our relationships through clear communication, healthy boundaries, and aligned living, we can then affect real social change — the kind that tells the truth even when it’s hard, and supports, protects, and values all people.
She values supporting her clients in becoming compassionately curious about unconscious patterns in themselves and in their relationships and is consistently humbled by being offered the opportunity to support people in establishing new norms that reflect lasting emotional health.
She is a trained group facilitator, published writer, and holds L.M.H.C. (Licensed Mental Health Counselor) licensure. Emily earned an M.A. in Counseling in 2020; counseling is a second career for her, the first wave of work in her life primarily focusing on raising two (astoundingly wonderful) children she shares with her husband. She also spent those years working tirelessly to heal her own trauma.
Fun fact about Emily: She is an avid baseball fan and can, throughout the Red Sox season, be found screaming/cheering loudly for (and sometimes at) her team from the comfort of her living room — or, more ideally, from somewhere along the first base line at Fenway.