Luis Maimoni is a bilingual (Spanish/English) therapist in the outpatient department of a community mental health agency in Gardena, CA. His clients are children with problems at school, at home, with friends, or in the community. They may avoid family and friends, get in fights, purposefully harm themselves, or have a hard time getting things done. He collaborates with these children and their families to find and treat the root cause. Although there are many clinical aspects to his work, the most important things he provides are a listening mind, relentless curiosity, deep caring and respect, and a willingness to be his authentic self. He is trained in several Evidence Based Practices, including Positive Parenting Program (Triple P), Managing and Adapting Practice (MAP), Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT), and Interpersonal Therapy (IPT). As Board Secretary of The Guidance Center, he is able to directly support the effort to erase the stigma associated with mental heath, and advocate for clients and providers. The Guidance Center provides mental health services to over 3,000 children and families each year in the communities of Long Beach, Compton, San Pedro, and Avalon.
Prior to working in mental health, Luis’s career focused on sales and marketing. Which is how we met incidentally. For over 20 years, he lead teams that created engagement with customers, clients, and communities via highly targeted content and platforms. We focus on the children and parents here today though. Enjoy!
In this episode Peter & Luis discuss:
0:40- Intro & welcome Luis!
1:50- Sometimes ADHD is not at the actual root of a kid’s trouble.
2:30- How & why did you switch from running your own agency to helping and treating kids?
3:08- So, with what types of kids are you usually working?
4:34- Talk to us about the stigma attached to mental health from your experiences
6:16- Why do you think it’s taking so long to break down the stigmas?
6:40- On mental health within the stoic culture of many immigrant parents
8:53- Kids on the spectrum usually have a pretty tough time opening up; what do you do to break through to them? Ref: Jennifer Hartstein interview
12:28- How are you framing ADHD to kids? How do you fight the “you are broken” residuals?
13:05- On parenting an ADHD child
15:23- Often, when parents hear a diagnosis, they go deaf to anything said afterwards. How do you handle that?
18:41- Luis, how can people find you on the socials? LinkedIn @ Luis Maimoni
19:00- Thank you Luis! And thank YOU for subscribing, reviewing and listening. Your reviews have been working! Even if you’ve reviewed us before, would you please continue to do so. Each review you post helps to ensure that word will continue to spread, and that we will all be able to reach & help even more people! You can always reach me via peter@shankman.com or @petershankman on all of the socials. You can also find us at @FasterThanNormal on all of the socials.
19:20- Faster Than Normal Podcast info & credits
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