César Reséndiz

Associate Director of Policy and Programs | Venice Community Housing

“As a psychotherapist, I move to empower others through healing, recovery, and addressing the trauma that is at times cyclical, specifically with communities of color. I envision that the future of racial equity is a combination of legislative change and hands-on work that includes mental health services, case management services, holistic and comprehensive services to continue to bring about change.”

César I. Reséndiz was born in Ixtapa Zihuatanejo, Mexico in 1982. He and his family emigrated to the United States in 1990, deciding to settle in East Los Angeles. Mr. Reséndiz is a bilingual Marriage and Family Therapist. After perceiving a lack of Mental Health resources in East Los Angeles, he decided to pursue his graduate education in Marriage and Family therapy specializing in Latino/a families. Mr. Reséndiz assisted foster children and their families with trauma recovery working in the intensive clinical services in Los Angeles county.

While the understanding that issues of Mental Health disproportionately affect Latino communities, Mr. Reséndiz has developed an operating manual to translate clinical interventions using easy-to-understand language and “street vernacular” in a way that delivers powerful and culturally informed psychotherapy. The clinical manual aims to assist in decolonizing mental health while empowering communities through their recovery. Working alongside Latino communities, Mr. Reséndiz realized that current clinical mental health care provides a top-down view that disempowers communities of color – a view he decided to change.

While honoring his Mexican heritage, Mr. Reséndiz has developed the “Aztec Armor” concept based on Jungian Depth Psychology with the help of the East Los Angeles community and his mentors. In 2016, César was one of the founders of the “Gentlemen’s Development Group” in South Los Angeles, which assisted young men with incarcerated fathers to address their mental health issues using the “Aztec Armor” approach. Through his years of clinical practice, Mr. Reséndiz found a passion for working with men’s existing psychopathology- an issue that sometimes goes unaddressed due to shame and conditioning. Using a psychotherapeutic approach infused with Toltec, Mayan, and Aztec wisdom, Mr. Reséndiz worked arduously to revitalize healing knowledge lost to time and colonization.