Sonia Fregoso
Sonia Fregoso, M.A., LMFT, is a Xicana licensed psychotherapist and grief and loss specialist. She received her grief training from Our House Grief Support Center. Sonia has a bachelor’s in Psychology from the California State University of Los Angeles, and a Master’s in Marriage and Family Therapy from the University of Southern California. Beyond her education, she continues to study Grief & Loss, Depth Psychology, Energy Psychology, Transpersonal Psychology, and Somatic Experiencing. As a facilitator of healing, she combines her expertise in psychology with elements of Curanderismo, Ancestral, Spiritual, and Energetic healing practices. Sonia continues to receive guidance from community elders, teachers, and mentors through her personal healing journey, professional development trainings, and experience as a psychotherapist for nearly a decade. Sonia offers experiential transformations through 1:1 intuitive coaching, emotional limpias, and tarot. Her focus is on teaching people how to access their energy and intuition to create lasting change in their mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical health.
What was the catalyst for you stepping into this work? How did you end up here, at this moment, doing what you do?
My own grief and loss journey was the catalyst for me stepping into this work. When I lost my maternal grandmother I also lost all connections to my external family due to dysfunctional family dynamics that ensued after her death. I felt abandoned by my family and experienced losses I never thought would happen at the age of 16. I didn’t know what I was experiencing until I began my college career and studied psychology. The more I learned about psychology the more everything started to make sense. In addition, being a first-gen college student, mental health was not a topic that my family spoke about for lack of access to education and resources. So I felt misunderstood most of my life for carrying grief the way I did (depression, anxiety). My entire healing journey with grief and loss is what brought me here. My mission is to educate and serve those who are experiencing all types of grief and loss, I want them to know that what they are feeling is normal and makes sense.
What do you hope people get from working with you or interacting with your services?
I hope people get a sense of belonging working with me and my services. It is my goal to help people feel seen, heard, and safe in their grieving process.
What do you wish was different about the way we are supported when dying, grieving, and navigating end-of-life in general? What would you change?
I believe our society needs a cultural shift around death, dying, and grieving. I would normalize and destigmatize conversations, preparations, celebrations, and narratives around the end-of-life. Instead of ignoring or denying the end-of-life, we need to shift to a culture that embraces the truth of life and all the emotions that arise when we accept that death is a natural part of life.
What would you say to someone who is nervous about attending events about death or grief?
Your nervousness makes sense to me. Being a part of a society who ignores conversations about death and makes grief and death a taboo topic only instills fear in its people. Events about death or grief are made to do the exact opposite. We’re here to help, listen, and shift the perspective people hold about the most natural process of life.
If someone meets you at the resource fair - what's a question you invite them to ask you?
You can ask me anything. I actually enjoy answering questions on my IG story because it is one of the ways I get to destigmatize mental health, grief, and healing.
