Healing in Our Own Language: How Norma Garcia Turns Lived Experience Into Collective Care
Tue Feb 03 2026
Healing does not always start in a textbook or a therapy room. Sometimes it begins in a family story, a breakup, a body that learned to survive too early, or a question we were never taught to ask ourselves. This episode is about what happens when a Latina decides to listen to those experiences instead of outrunning them.
In today’s episode of Amiga Handle Your Shit, Jackie Tapia sits down with licensed clinical social worker, somatic therapist, and holistic healer Norma Garcia, a proud first-generation Mexicana born and raised in Los Angeles. Together, they explore how personal history, cultural identity, and lived experience can be resignified into powerful tools for healing, not just for ourselves, but for our communities.
Norma reflects on growing up as the daughter of Mexican immigrants, carrying responsibility early and learning how to survive emotionally before she ever had language for it. She speaks to the invisible weight many first-generation Latinas carry, the pressure to succeed, to sacrifice, to keep going. That weight followed her into years of community mental health work, where burnout and broken systems forced her to ask a hard question: what does it cost to always be the strong one? Her shift into private practice was not about ambition, but about choosing care that felt honest, human, and whole.
She also shares how a personal breakup cracked something open, exposing patterns of people-pleasing and self-abandonment rooted in culture and survival. That moment reshaped her work, leading her to support Latinas in understanding how they love, how they attach, and how safety actually feels in the body. Through somatic healing, Norma reminds us that healing is not just thinking differently; it is learning to feel safe again. She closes with a simple grounding practice, a quiet invitation to come back home to yourself.
Tune in to episode 268 of Amiga Handle Your Shit for a deeply affirming conversation on Latinidad, self-trust, healing the body, and turning lived experience into a source of wisdom and service.
Episode TakeawaysHow growing up first-gen shapes responsibility, identity, and emotional survival (04:00)Why mental health conversations often skip Latino households and how that impacts adulthood (06:40)What ten years in community mental health taught Norma about burnout and scarcity (14:30)Why entrepreneurship became an act of self-preservation, not ambition (16:00)How personal heartbreak revealed generational patterns around love and self-abandonment (20:00)What “love blueprints” are and how culture shapes how we attach and relate (21:30)Why healing requires addressing the nervous system, not just the mind (27:00)How somatic therapy reconnects the body, emotions, and sense of safety (28:30)A simple grounding practice to support yourself during emotional triggers (31:30)Why Latinas deserve healing that honors culture, body, and soul together (34:00)
Connect with Norma Garcia:
WebsiteLinkedInInstagram
Let's Connect!
WebsiteFacebookInstagramLinkedInJackie Tapia Arbonne's websiteBook: The AMIGA Way: Release Cultural Limiting Beliefs to Transform Your Life Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Healing does not always start in a textbook or a therapy room. Sometimes it begins in a family story, a breakup, a body that learned to survive too early, or a question we were never taught to ask ourselves. This episode is about what happens when a Latina decides to listen to those experiences instead of outrunning them. In today’s episode of Amiga Handle Your Shit, Jackie Tapia sits down with licensed clinical social worker, somatic therapist, and holistic healer Norma Garcia, a proud first-generation Mexicana born and raised in Los Angeles. Together, they explore how personal history, cultural identity, and lived experience can be resignified into powerful tools for healing, not just for ourselves, but for our communities. Norma reflects on growing up as the daughter of Mexican immigrants, carrying responsibility early and learning how to survive emotionally before she ever had language for it. She speaks to the invisible weight many first-generation Latinas carry, the pressure to succeed, to sacrifice, to keep going. That weight followed her into years of community mental health work, where burnout and broken systems forced her to ask a hard question: what does it cost to always be the strong one? Her shift into private practice was not about ambition, but about choosing care that felt honest, human, and whole. She also shares how a personal breakup cracked something open, exposing patterns of people-pleasing and self-abandonment rooted in culture and survival. That moment reshaped her work, leading her to support Latinas in understanding how they love, how they attach, and how safety actually feels in the body. Through somatic healing, Norma reminds us that healing is not just thinking differently; it is learning to feel safe again. She closes with a simple grounding practice, a quiet invitation to come back home to yourself. Tune in to episode 268 of Amiga Handle Your Shit for a deeply affirming conversation on Latinidad, self-trust, healing the body, and turning lived experience into a source of wisdom and service. Episode TakeawaysHow growing up first-gen shapes responsibility, identity, and emotional survival (04:00)Why mental health conversations often skip Latino households and how that impacts adulthood (06:40)What ten years in community mental health taught Norma about burnout and scarcity (14:30)Why entrepreneurship became an act of self-preservation, not ambition (16:00)How personal heartbreak revealed generational patterns around love and self-abandonment (20:00)What “love blueprints” are and how culture shapes how we attach and relate (21:30)Why healing requires addressing the nervous system, not just the mind (27:00)How somatic therapy reconnects the body, emotions, and sense of safety (28:30)A simple grounding practice to support yourself during emotional triggers (31:30)Why Latinas deserve healing that honors culture, body, and soul together (34:00) Connect with Norma Garcia: WebsiteLinkedInInstagram Let's Connect! WebsiteFacebookInstagramLinkedInJackie Tapia Arbonne's websiteBook: The AMIGA Way: Release Cultural Limiting Beliefs to Transform Your Life Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.