Mental Health Services

HEAL is currently providing individual and group therapeutic and psycho-educational services for:

  • Survivors of torture, including children and families, who are clients of the RISE Program at Asylee Women Enterprise.

  • Clients of Asylee Women Enterprise’s Steps to Success Program, a psycho-education and social engagement support program for youth survivors of trauma, including trafficking.

  • Unaccompanied immigrant youth participants of Esperanza Center’s UC Summer Youth Program, piloted in Summer 2022, which provides space for social engagement and psychosocial support for program participants.   

HEAL also recognizes the challenges to providers who are serving refugee and immigrant clients within a fractured social service landscape impacted by systemic racism, widespread trauma, and ongoing violence. HEAL seeks to address provider experiences, including vicarious traumatization, by providing thoughtful, evidence-based, pre-service training for clinicians and student volunteers. HEAL also provides on-going support to clinicians and students through group processing and one-on-one support.

Steps 2 Success Facilitators

Joey Barga, MEd

Facilitator, Young Men’s Peer Support Group

Joey Barga is a Professional School Counselor for Baltimore County Public Schools, specifically working with the High School ESOL student population. Previously, Barga worked for several years in the field of Accounting before completing his MEd in School Counseling from Loyola University Maryland to pursue his passion of mentoring youth and supporting their mental health. In addition to his career as a school counselor, Barga has worked with youth in various capacities with the Esperanza Center, Baltimore City YouthWorks, and Big Brothers Big Sisters organizations. In his free time, he enjoys traveling, playing and watching sports, and spending time with friends and family.

Raquel Sofia Sandoval, MD, MPP

Facilitator, New/Pregnant Mothers’ Peer Support Group

Raquel is currently a resident physician at Johns Hopkins University in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics within the Urban Health Residency program. Originally from Cali, Colombia, she graduated from University of Pittsburgh with a degree in Studio Arts and Natural Sciences before going to Harvard University, where she earned her MD and Master of Public Policy. She has led workshops on structural racism and has a strong interest in serving as a primary care provider for Latinx patients after finishing residency.

Yesenia “Yesi” Garcia, MSW, LCSW

Facilitator, New/Pregnant Mothers’ Peer Support Group

Yesenia is currently a PhD student and T32 Global Mental Health Fellow at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and is an LCSW with experience working as a bilingual therapist. She is from California and attended UCSB for her undergraduate degree and UCLA for her MSW. She has an extensive mental health research experience as well as background in program development, having implemented a seven-week program for women in rural Mexico focused on intergenerational trauma.

Edwin Giron, MA

Facilitator, Young Men’s Peer Support Group

Edwin is a High School Counselor in Baltimore County Public Schools. Previously, he worked as an ESOL counseling intern and as a high school Spanish teacher. He is an experienced group facilitator and has run trauma-informed student groups for Spanish-speaking immigrants, including an arts-based peer support program for unaccompanied refugee minors from Central America as well as a group counseling intervention to reduce acculturation stress and increase academic self-efficacy in recently immigrated Hispanic students. He holds an MA in School Counseling from Loyola University Maryland.

Martha Velez, MD

Facilitator, New/Pregnant Mothers’ Peer Support Group

Martha has decades of experience working to support new mothers and will serve primarily in an advisory role for the new and pregnant mothers’ group. She was trained as a pediatrician in Colombia and continues to stay involved in Baltimore with efforts related to wellbeing during pregnancy and motherhood.