About Mabel
I help Women of Color who have spent a lifetime being strong for everyone else break free from the weight of always being needed and rediscover who they are when no one's watching
Mabel Silva, LMHC
Have you spent your whole life being strong for everyone else, showing up, holding it down, keeping it together while quietly running on empty? I want you to know: you deserve to be held too.
I see you...because I've seen you before. In the women who raised me. In the ones who walked beside me. Women who gave endlessly to everyone around them, running on fumes, with no one pausing to check in on them. Women who became who they were needed to be, slowly drifting from who they actually were. That image never left me. It's what led me to this work, and it's what keeps me here.
So often, the exhaustion you're carrying has roots. Roots in family systems where your needs came last, where love felt conditional, or where keeping the peace mattered more than speaking your truth. Those early lessons don't stay in childhood. They follow us into our adult relationships, showing up as over-giving, difficulty trusting, or choosing dynamics that feel familiar even when they hurt. If perfectionism, people-pleasing, emotional exhaustion, or difficulty setting boundaries feel all too familiar, you're not alone. These aren't flaws. They're adaptations that once kept you safe.
Whether you're untangling complicated family dynamics, healing from painful relationship patterns, or simply trying to figure out who you are outside of what everyone else needs from you, therapy with me is a space where you don't have to perform, prove, or protect anyone. You can just be.
You've spent enough time pouring into everyone else. It's your turn.
Schedule a free 15-min consult with our intake coordinator here to get started with me.
Let's build self-worth that isn't tied to achievement or approval, find safety in your relationships and learn to put yourself first without guilt.
Our sessions will be warm, collaborative, and curious, and yes, occasionally sprinkled with a little humor, because healing doesn't have to be heavy all the time.
We'll gently challenge the inner critic, loosen the grip of beliefs that have kept you stuck, and help you reconnect with your own needs, voice, and strength. I draw from attachment-based therapy, Internal Family Systems (IFS), somatic work, trauma-focused methods, and strength-based frameworks, always tailored to honor your unique story. And the full context of your life, the weight of navigating racism, generational trauma, community expectations, and everything in between, is never a side note here. It's central to our work.
More About Me
Simple pleasure: I'm a firm believer that there's medicine in the simple things, a perfect sunset, a good book, a walk along the river, the sound of waves, that first cup of coffee in the morning, and a vanilla and lavender candle burning nearby.
Favorite quote: I live by the words: "People are just as wonderful as sunsets if I can let them be."
Not-so-fun fact: I'm terrified of planes, but somehow that never stops me from making it to the Caribbean.