Akilah Vazquez, M.A., Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist

22/07/2025

21/07/2025

Sometimes the hardest life lessons are realizing that people don’t value you the way that you value them, realizing that they aren’t choosing you, and that people do what they want to do for the people that they want to do it for. You don’t have to beg from those who see your value for what you need.

Occasionally, being around certain people stirs up a wound that’s so deep that you don’t know where it comes from or where it started, but you know that you feel the hurt. It might be a wound that makes you wonder why I was never chosen. Why am I not deserving of being loved? The reality is that you have many examples around you where you have been selected. Don’t allow these insignificant moments to break or disrupt your spirit.

15/06/2025

Grief is more than a process; it is a feeling of heartbreak from the loss of someone whom you can only love spiritually. As we enter year three without my father, I wonder if I will ever regain my smile. I smile, but it feels broken. I thought I was okay, but after leaving the cemetery, I felt sad. As a grown woman, I need my dad. I miss my dad.

30/05/2025

Hello, I hope all is well. Preventing burnout by doing more of what brings me peace.

01/05/2025

May is Mental Health Awareness Month. What can you do today that supports your mental health? Reduce stress? Change how you feel about yourself? Improve your connection with others? Pick one thing this month and work on it daily until you have made progress and are ready for another change.

23/04/2025

10:30 AM SATURDAY
(IN-PERSON) Barbershop Yoga — A Weekly Black Men’s Class with Black to Yoga

Barbershop Yoga is an intentionally-designed space for Black-identified males to access yoga that centers Blackness; offering familiarity, comfort, and brotherhood. Our mission is to create a space for healing, connection, and to “rehumanize black.” We reaffirm our humanity by “trimming our trauma” with group dialogue and yogic practices. We meet every Saturday at Black Wellness Market (3851 Market St.)

⚠️ Last Saturday of the month, CLASS is an open to EVERYONE and has a sound bath.

Link in the bio ☝🏽☝🏽

23/04/2025

A couple of weeks ago while out attending a day party, a woman close to my age approached me and asked me what my name was and if had I lived in Oakland when I was younger. I confirmed my name and where I had lived and she said I don’t know if you remember me, but you tutored me when you were about 14 years old.
I looked at her I could see her face as a young girl and she said to me that coming to my family‘s home was a very important time for her as she was going through something in her own family and it helped her coming to my house. We caught up a little bit about what we’re doing in life and found out that we live in the same city where we’re both Therapists. I say all this to say that you never know how much you make a difference in the life of another person. Words, spending time with them, and sharing your home with them can make a difference. We never know what someone is going through and how just being there can change that experience for them. It reminded me that therapy has been a calling in my life and while I didn’t know it at 14 years old, who I would be today, running into her made a difference in who I see myself as now.

27/02/2025

During these trying times, I want to assure you that there are therapists who see you and know what it means to be oppressed and experience racial discrimination. I will always be a proud advocate for what's right. I’m late with my Black History Month post, and I know that my posts have been MIA. I am focusing on my dissertation and limiting my social media presence. Still, I want to share my Black Excellence moment and some things happening in Oakland and surrounding cities this week. I proudly claim , and it runs deeply in my veins. You may notice a ton of women wearing pink and green in Oakland. They are here for our 96th Far Western regional conferences, my sorority , Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority. Inc. Another thing I’d like to spotlight is a self-care walk by .__ . My graduate chapter supports this annual event. Lastly, I want to celebrate the completion of the first part of my dissertation project. As we wrap up Black History Month, I encourage you to look at all protest dates starting tomorrow with a blackout date. Do not shop if you don’t have to. Just to be clear, I do not represent anyone but myself. These are my thoughts, and while I may be a member of or support specific organizations, I speak for myself, not those organizations.

09/01/2025

Like any other start of the year, 2025 is a time for you to think about a reset of who you are and how you want to be intentional about yourself, your time, and the areas of your life. For example, I have been very intentional about my social media presence by reducing my posts and my time on social media. With the political and social climate of things, reducing stress via all unnecessary platforms feels like a healthy lifestyle change. I hope this helps you as you transition into being in your own -being.

29/12/2024

As we approach the final days of 2024, I reflect on the lessons of this season in my life. I stopped making resolutions a few years ago because it was a setup for failure. Having or setting unrealistic expectations of myself and judging through a harsh lens was not a growth mindset. Knowing that challenges are growth opportunities, I have been changing my habits, including controlling my expectations of others in my “let them era.” It has been a period of rest. My stress was reduced, and I felt more like I was in my soft girl, soft life season. I found freedom and peace; I continue to speak my truth and seek to show up as my most authentic self in safe spaces. So, as we close out 2024, I will enter #2025 with a clean slate, my heart and mind on the same page.