"I believe in meeting people exactly where they are with honesty, warmth, and a willingness to do the hard work alongside them."
About Your Therapist
Hello,
I'm Nicole.
LPC · NCC · EMDR Trained | Rowlett, TX
I'm a Licensed Professional Counselor specializing in equine-assisted psychotherapy and trauma recovery working with children, teens, and adolescents on my own ranch, with my own horses.
LPC #89377
NCC
EMDR Trained
EAP Specialist
Licensed Professional Counselor · Rowlett, Texas
Meet Nicole.
LPC #89377
National Certified Counselor
Equine-Assisted Psychotherapy
Trafficking Awareness Educator
EAP specialist
EMDR trained
"I believe in meeting people exactly where they are with honesty, warmth, and a willingness to do the hard work alongside them."
Advocacy Work
Fighting trafficking from crisis response to systemic education.
Nicole's work in trafficking advocacy spans two distinct and deeply connected tracks: direct crisis response with survivors, and proactive awareness education inside the systems where trafficked and at-risk youth are most likely to be found.
As a crisis response advocate at a child sex trafficking advocacy centre, Nicole provided immediate trauma-informed support to young survivors navigating disclosure, medical exams, law enforcement interviews, and the terrifying uncertainty of what came next. This work demanded clinical skill, cultural sensitivity, and the ability to build trust quickly with children who had every reason not to trust.
"The kids in juvenile detention aren't there by accident many of them are trafficking victims who entered a system that criminalized their survival. I wanted to change what happened when those doors opened."
Nicole's work in trafficking advocacy spans two distinct and deeply connected tracks: direct crisis response with survivors, and proactive awareness education inside the systems where trafficked and at-risk youth are most likely to be found.
As a crisis response advocate at a Traffic911 ( Local non-profit), Nicole provided immediate trauma-informed support to young survivors navigating disclosure, medical exams, law enforcement interviews, and the terrifying uncertainty of what came next. This work demanded clinical skill, cultural sensitivity, and the ability to build trust quickly with children who had every reason not to trust.
Role
Crisis Response Advocate
Provided immediate trauma-informed crisis support to child sex trafficking survivors through a dedicated advocacy centre, working alongside law enforcement, medical, and child protective services.
Program Created
Trafficking Awareness Juvenile Justice
Developed and delivered a trafficking identification and prevention curriculum inside juvenile detention facilities and for youth on probation reaching high-risk youth inside the systems already intersecting their lives.
Specializations
Clinical Focus Areas
Adult & child sex trafficking · Labor trafficking · Child abuse & sexual trauma · Domestic violence · Teen substance abuse · PTSD · Anxiety & depression
Today
Trafficking-Informed EAP Practice
The Therapy Ranch serves trafficking survivors, at-risk youth, and complex trauma clients using equine-assisted psychotherapy an approach uniquely suited to those for whom traditional talk therapy falls short.
International Experience
A global lens on local healing.
Before planting roots in Rowlett, Nicole spent time working across multiple countries in settings that stretched her understanding of trauma, culture, and human resilience. Those experiences don't sit in her past; they sit in every session she facilitates.
International
Sex Trafficking Rehabilitation Centers
Worked directly alongside survivors in residential rehabilitation settings, providing psychoeducation, emotional support, and trauma-informed case coordination in cross-cultural contexts.
International
Domestic Violence Shelters
Supported women and children in acute crisis at domestic violence shelters, gaining multicultural perspective on how violence, poverty, and powerlessness intersect and how resilience takes root.
International
Orphanages & Children's Program
Worked with children in orphanage settings across different countries, observing how early relational trauma, neglect, and institutionalization shape development and what genuine connection can shift.
Insight Gained
Multicultural Trauma Framework
Developed a deep understanding of how culture, language, and systemic barriers shape the way survivors experience and express trauma informing her culturally responsive clinical approach today.
Insight Gained
Systemic Barriers to Healing
Witnessed firsthand how systemic inequities poverty, immigration status, language barriers, institutional distrust prevent survivors from accessing care. This drives her commitment to accessible, community-rooted therapy.
Applied Today
Locally Rooted, Globally Informed
Every session at The Therapy Ranch benefits from the multicultural awareness, field-hardened empathy, and global perspective Nicole developed across years of international advocacy work.
"Through my experiences across different countries and communities, I've seen that trauma speaks every language and so does healing. What I learned in those years abroad lives in every session I facilitate here in Rowlett. It reminds me that every client carries a world within them that deserves to be understood on its own terms."
— Nicole Hernandez, LPC, NCC