Meet Jonathan Rea | Psychotherapist & PhD Candidate

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jonathan Rea and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jonathan, can you tell us more about your background and the role it’s played in shaping who you are today?
My narrative as an immigrant has provided me with a cultural lens, which influences the way in which I see the world. I spent the first years of my life in an indigenous village in southern Mexico. My mother’s employment as an educator brought my parents and I to the United States. My world as a child was bicultural, bilingual, and culturally compartmentalized. I would spend my school days soaking in the new American culture, speaking English, and learning American history. I would come home after school to a Mexican-American household which only spoke Spanish inside the home and celebrated a Latinx heritage.
Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I am a psychotherapist who specializes in working with teens, young adults, families, and addictions.

After getting my bachelors degree, I spent ten years in the legal field working with adolescents who had experienced abandonment, abuse, or neglect by their parents. What I saw was that no matter how successful we were in the teen’s legal cases, some of them continued engaging in maladaptive behaviors. There was something we were missing. Research states that the earlier the childhood trauma occurs, the earlier the individual starts experiencing arrests and the more likely they are to be repeat offenders. I started reading about how early childhood trauma can lead to impulsive or addictive behaviors as an adult. So, I decided to leave the legal field and go back to graduate school. I earned my Master of Science degree from the University of St. Thomas specializing in Clinical Mental Health Counseling in 2019.

Today, I work with addictions as they manifest within the family unit. Often times, the person who walks into my office is the “identified patient” in the family, whether that’s the kid getting in trouble at school or the adolescent with addictions. However, when I start bringing in other family members, I see other roles come up, such as the “chief enabler” or the “family hero”. Once the healing begins to happen for one individual in the family, the others in the family will find it difficult to continue their own contributing roles and will often open up to their own healing also.

My therapy office is a place for unconditional empathy, acceptance, non-judgement, and growth regardless of your race, ethnicity, religion, age, gender identity, or sexual orientation.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I am an avid hiker and love nature trails! In fact, this weekend I biked from Spring to Humble, starting at Dennis Johnston Park and ending at the Spring Creek Greenway trailhead of I-59. The Spring Creek Greenway has numerous parks to stop at and enjoy the scenery, river, canoe launch, or just hangout.

Memorial Park is another one of my favorites and it has experienced so much beautiful growth recently, and it is still growing! And of course, there is Buffalo Bayou with its ample trails, food trucks, bat colony observation, and even cisterns! A body in motions stays in motion and the city of Houston has so many places where you can be at motion, hike, bike, or even just stroll!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
When I first came out of the closet in my teenage years, the LGBTQ community provided help to my family. Organizations such as PFLAG (Parents and Families of Lesbians and Gays) provided my parents with education about the community. Other parents of gay teens modeled for my parents how it looks like to love and support their gay son. Later, in college, PFLAG gave me a scholarship that funded a portion of my undergraduate studies. The LGBTQ community has continuously stepped in to support me whether its through scholarships or even queer-friendly healthcare through Legacy Clinic or the Montrose Center. We really look out for each other as a community. They get my biggest shoutout.

Website: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapists/jonathan-rea-kingwood-tx/813576

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-rea-0840648b/

Other: https://malatytherapy.com/therapists/jonathan-rea/