Meet Darniel J. Mojica, LCSW

I’m Darniel J. Mojica, a bilingual Licensed Clinical Social Worker and founder of Sound Mind Counseling®. My approach to therapy is practical, collaborative, culturally responsive, and trauma-informed. I believe meaningful change begins with understanding the whole person—not simply a diagnosis, symptom, or difficult moment in someone’s life.

My Roots in Hartford

I was born and raised in Hartford, Connecticut, and my upbringing has had a significant influence on the person and therapist I am today. I grew up in a community where poverty, violence, crime, addiction, incarceration, and loss were realities.

Over the years, I watched people I grew up with take very different paths. Some struggled with addiction or incarceration, whilothers lost their lives. Those experiences taught me something long before I became a social worker: behavior doesn’t always tell the whole story. Behind the way people think, cope, react, and make decisions are often experiences

involving family, relationships, trauma, culture, environment, opportunities, and circumstances that others may never see.

My upbringing doesn’t mean that I assume my experience is the same as someone else’s. Instead, it taught me to approach people with curiosity rather than judgment and to understand their struggles within the context of their lives.

Later, when I learned the person-in-environment perspective through social work, it gave professional language to something I had already witnessed firsthand: our experiences and surroundings can profoundly influence how we think, feel, relate to others, and respond to stress.

Experience That Shapes My Approach

I earned my Master of Social Work with a concentration in Community Mental Health from the University of Saint Joseph. My undergraduate social work education also included a focus in Latino Community Practice. My career has included pediatric integrated healthcare, child and adult outpatient mental health, psychiatric crisis services, school-based counseling, multidisciplinary healthcare teams, clinical supervision, and organizational leadership. I have also worked extensively with culturally diverse and underserved communities and with

individuals and families navigating trauma and significant life challenges.

My leadership experience has included overseeing behavioral health and community- based programs serving individuals affected by domestic violence, human trafficking, HIV, mental health concerns, and other complex social and behavioral health needs.

As a Hispanic/Latino therapist, I recognize that culture, family, faith, community, and life experiences can influence how we understand mental health and whether we feel comfortable seeking help. I provide therapy in both English and Spanish and strive to create an environment where people from different backgrounds feel respected, understood, and welcomed. I have also served as a clinical supervisor and preceptor for graduate social work students preparing to enter the profession.

How I Approach Therapy

I don’t believe therapy should be one-size-fits-all. I want to understand what is happening in your life, what may have contributed to it, what patterns may be keeping you stuck, and what realistically needs to change. You bring expertise about your life. I bring clinical experience, perspective, and therapeutic tools. We use both.

My role isn’t simply to sit back and listen. I’ll listen carefully, but I’ll also ask questions, help you recognize patterns, provide education, challenge unhelpful thinking when appropriate, and help you develop practical strategies you can use outside of therapy. My work draws from cognitive behavioral approaches, trauma-informed care, DBT- informed emotional regulation skills, motivational interviewing, psychoeducation, and other evidence-based interventions based on the needs of the individual.

My Clinical Focus
Today, my individual clinical work primarily focuses on anxiety and overthinking, anger and emotional regulation, and relationship and life stress. My experience in trauma treatment also influences how I work across these areas. Sometimes what is happening today has roots in what happened before.

Understanding those connections can help us recognize patterns and develop healthier ways of responding in the present. While these areas represent much of my individual clinical work, the vision for Sound Mind Counseling® is broader. As the practice grows, our goal is to respond to the mental health needs of the communities we serve by bringing together clinicians with different strengths, experiences, and areas of expertise.

Why Sound Mind Counseling®

My path into counseling was influenced by both my upbringing in Hartford and my experiences working with young people through church. I saw how easily people could be judged by their behavior, circumstances, or mistakes without anyone taking the time to understand what was happening underneath. My professional career reinforced that lesson. Working across community mental health, crisis services, schools, healthcare settings, and outpatient programs showed me how strongly mental health can be affected by family, culture, trauma, relationships, financial pressures, access to resources, and the environments in which people live.

After years of working within behavioral health organizations, I entered private practice because I wanted greater freedom to provide care that was individualized, practical, culturally responsive, and connected to the needs of the community.

The name Sound Mind Counseling® later came to me through prayer and was inspired by 2 Timothy 1:7: “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”

That message reflected what I wanted the practice to represent: helping people better understand themselves, move beyond patterns driven by fear or distress, develop greater control over their responses, and move forward with greater clarity and direction.

Although faith is part of the story behind Sound Mind Counseling®, our practice welcomes people of different cultures, backgrounds, beliefs, and life experiences. For clients who want faith incorporated into therapy, it can be part of the therapeutic process.

Today, my vision extends beyond my individual work as a therapist. I want Sound Mind Counseling® to continue developing as a practice that responds to community mental health needs while maintaining the personal connection and individualized care upon which it was founded.