Care Counseling Access Foundation, founded by Dr. Maria Rodriguez, PhD, Licensed Professional Counselor, has officially launched to advance access to trauma-informed mental health clinical evaluations for immigrant and underserved communities navigating immigration-related legal processes.
The nonprofit organization was created to address a critical and often overlooked gap in the U.S. immigration system: the limited access many individuals and families face when seeking ethical, culturally responsive, and clinically sound mental health evaluations. For immigrants impacted by trauma, abuse, hardship, displacement, or family separation, professional mental health assessments can provide important clinical insight that supports fair and informed legal decision-making.
With more than two decades of experience as a licensed professional counselor, Dr. Rodriguez has worked extensively at the intersection of mental health, immigration, and underserved communities. Her work focuses on ensuring psychological trauma is ethically assessed, culturally understood, and accurately represented within legal and institutional processes that can profoundly impact individuals, families, and communities.
“Too many immigrant families carry trauma that is never fully understood within the systems making life-changing decisions about their future,” said Dr. Maria Rodriguez, Founder of Care Counseling Access Foundation. “This foundation exists to help individuals be seen, heard, and evaluated with dignity, compassion, and clinical integrity.”
Care Counseling Access Foundation’s mission is to expand access to mental health clinical evaluations for immigrant and underserved individuals who may otherwise face barriers due to cost, language, immigration status, stigma, or lack of culturally responsive care. The organization is committed to making mental health support more accessible, regardless of income or background.
As a first-generation American, Dr. Rodriguez brings both professional expertise and lived experience to the foundation’s work. Growing up navigating cultural barriers, language challenges, and bicultural identity shaped her understanding of how systems can unintentionally exclude the very people they are meant to serve. Those experiences continue to guide her clinical practice, advocacy, and leadership.
The foundation is guided by core values of compassion, ethics, cultural responsiveness, accessibility, trauma-informed care, and community. Its work is grounded in evidence-based, clinically rigorous, and ethically guided assessment practices designed to support vulnerable individuals with professionalism and care.
Mental health evaluations can play an important role in immigration-related legal processes by helping document trauma, emotional suffering, hardship, and other psychological factors that may otherwise go unrecognized. Without proper assessment, families may face legal decisions that lack critical clinical context.
Care Counseling Access Foundation aims to support underserved communities through reduced-cost and pro bono evaluations, professional standards, and partnerships with attorneys, advocates, clinicians, and community organizations. The nonprofit also seeks to raise awareness about the importance of mental health in immigrant communities and the role trauma-informed care can play in advancing fairness and dignity.
“Our vision is a world where mental health support is a right, not a privilege,” Dr. Rodriguez added. “Every individual deserves the opportunity to have their story understood with accuracy, humanity, and respect.”
About Care Counseling Access Foundation
Care Counseling Access Foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to expanding access to trauma-informed mental health clinical evaluations for immigrant and underserved individuals navigating immigration-related legal processes. Founded by Dr. Maria Rodriguez, the foundation works to ensure individuals and families impacted by trauma, abuse, and hardship have access to ethical, culturally responsive mental health assessments that support fair and informed legal decision-making.
