Alondra Hernandez (17) is a PLNU alum who has gone outside of her comfort zone to reach out to her Hispanic community with her own therapy practice. She is trained in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) and certified in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). She has her B.A. in Psychology and her M.A. in Clinical Counseling (MACC) from PLNU and has found purpose in supporting the personal and mental health of the people who need it most.
Hernandez grew up in Escondido, California with her parents and younger sisters. When she was 10 years old, her parents decided to pack up and move to Mexico so that their children could be closer to their extended family and Hispanic culture. While in Mexico, Hernandez lived in Vera Cruz and Toluca.
During her time in Mexico, Hernandez became very fluent in Spanish, and learned more about grammar and fluency. She had been around Spanish because of her parents, but never gained fluency in the states because she spoke only English in school.
At 14, Hernandez and her family moved back to the states so that Hernandez could go to high school here. Even though she was grateful for the experience, Hernandez felt that she didn’t fully fit in with her friends. She felt that there was a new part of herself that she didn’t fully know how to integrate into her relationships.
“I felt like I didn’t fit in,” Hernandez said. “I felt there was this new part of me that I didn’t really know how to share it with others and how to bring it into my everyday interactions with my peers.”
Hernandez grew up in the Catholic church which was very intertwined with Mexican culture. When she was in high school, her family started going to a Nazarene church; this shift along with going to PLNU caused her to slightly change directions in her spiritual life.
Once at PLNU, Hernandez decided to initially double major in business and biology. During her sophomore year, she had a realization that her ambitions were externally motivated rather than internally. She found that she really connected with psychology and switched her major during the second semester of her sophomore year. She had the opportunity to study abroad in Rome and felt really at home in her psych class there.
“I took a psychology class there [Rome],” Hernandez said, “and I just felt like it was everything that I loved. I remember not wanting to miss a day of class.”
The most memorable class that Hernandez took during her time at PLNU was Marriage and Family Therapy taught by John Wu, Ed.D., who offered practical tools for raising kids and building strong relationships. This class has heavily impacted her methods in her Reavivo practice.
Even though Hernandez grew up around Hispanic culture, she didn’t feel like she was searching out for a Hispanic community while at college. She knew that everyone has their own culture and background, so she was more interested in meeting all different kinds of people. She understood that her culture is her own and she didn’t feel like she needed a Hispanic community to feel connected to her culture.
“As long as I stay true to who I am and my experiences, I can still learn from others,” Hernandez explained. “Everyone has their own cultural background and upbringing and that alone makes their family culture. I think about it that way.”
During her time at PLNU, Hernandez was a part of the MOSAIC club and participated in Ministry with Mexico in Tijuana.
“As long as I stay true to who I am and my experiences, I can still learn from others. Everyone has their own cultural background and upbringing and that alone makes their family culture. I think about it that way.”
Because of her brief time as a business major and growing up around parents who were business owners, Hernandez feels that she has always been very entrepreneurially minded and is always thinking about how to make work better. Unfortunately, this did not always go over well with her employers; some felt that she went outside of her lane, which led her to feel restricted working for other people. This is when she decided to start her own practice, Reavivo.
“I’ve always been entrepreneurial myself and having had the business background, I think that it is in my nature to not just go to work and leave work at work,” Hernandez stated. “I am always thinking about how to make something better.”
Before founding Reavivo, Hernandez worked for a few different companies. She did her internship at SHARP Psychiatric Hospital in Mesa Vista, the Center for Enriching Relationships which is connected with the PLNU MACC program, and Daybreak Health which is a virtual mental health program for kids.
While working at Daybreak, Hernandez found she felt the happiest. She was able to help design a program to bring mental health services to San Diego schools where kids could work on social skills, emotional regulation, and setting strong foundations for their mental and emotional health for the rest of their lives. Daybreak is where Hernandez found her passion for working with kids and teens.
When Hernandez founded Reavivo about six months ago, it was part of her mission to make the practice accessible to people with multicultural backgrounds. She has taken a very evidence-based approach in order to do this. Hernandez is currently working on branching out more to Hispanic communities to broaden her practice.
During the process of starting her own company, Hernandez has found the practice shifting to working with more kids, teens, and young adults — especially because of the passion she found for helping young people while working at Daybreak. She focuses on helping kids with social skills, emotion regulation, cognitive restructuring, and mindfulness.
Reavivo’s main focus is to focus on preventative mental health support for kids and giving them a strong foundation of emotional and social skills that they can carry throughout their lives. By focusing on these skills from a young age, kids can build healthy relationships with themselves and others right off the bat.
“It’s just amazing where we’ve gone and it is just getting better, so there is hope for our future kids.”
Hernandez also works with new parents, which has been one of the most rewarding parts of her work. She helps parents navigate the transition by providing tools to manage stress, uncertainty, and overwhelming emotions. Part of her practice is also helping parents build strong relationships with their children while also helping them take care of their own emotional well-being.
Because she grew up in the Catholic church, Hernandez was always taught that she should reach out to her church community when it comes to personal or mental health issues. She saw her parents going to different church groups instead of reaching out to a mental health professional. Hernandez has been inspired to make her practice accessible to all kinds of people because of the lack of resources she had as a child.
One of Hernandez’s missions with her practice is to meet each client where they are emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. Even though she has her own spiritual practice, Hernandez always leaves it up to the clients whether or not they want to talk about spirituality. Her spirituality is rooted in Christian beliefs, and she deeply believes that God is love and is present everywhere. She has expressed that this belief shapes her understanding of the world and how she approaches her practice.
“I see God’s love as a guiding force in my life, one that calls me to show compassion, kindness, and empathy in everything I do,” Hernandez said. “For me, spirituality isn’t just about beliefs — it’s about living in alignment with love and purpose.”
“I see God’s love as a guiding force in my life, one that calls me to show compassion, kindness, and empathy in everything I do. For me, spirituality isn’t just about beliefs — it’s about living in alignment with love and purpose.”
