Benito Murguia, LCSW #134860
Benito Murguia is a therapist at Coyote Coast.
Benito received a Masters degree from CSU East Bay and has worked at Coyote Coast since 2014 working with many families and teens in the greater East Bay. Benito enjoys working with families, couples, young adults, and teens as they navigate the process of growing together as a family, focusing on trauma, attachment based interventions, internal family systems, desistance theory, CBT, and mindfulness practices. He enjoys mentoring young people to attain a sense of self, identity, and purpose as they move to individuate themselves in the world. He also enjoys helping families with the difficult process of parenting, teenage development, and the relationship in the parent child dynamic. And he enjoys working with parents navigating the difficult task of aligning values in the parenting process. He does so by engaging in family therapy, couples therapy, individual therapy, mentoring with teens and parent coaching.
During Benito's time at CSU East Bay he interned with Safe Passages, a non-profit community based organization in Oakland, where he worked with foster youth preparing to age out of the foster care system and setting them up with AB12 services. Benito also interned with Alameda County Behavioral Health, working at the Guidance Clinic in the Alameda County Juvenile Hall. While at the Juvenile Hall he assisted in the development of the TAY (transitional age youth) pilot program, outlined by AB 1004 for first time felons ages 18-24.
Benito's volunteer work and past experience inspired him to obtain a Master's in Social Work, from California State East Bay MSW program.
In Oakland, Benito has volunteered as a group facilitator at Urban Peace Movement working with transitional age youth, who are formerly incarcerated and are developing leadership skills to end violence within their communities. Benito has also coached with East Bay United soccer, Noll/Soll baseball and was a regular parent volunteer when his child was at St. Paul's Episcopal Elementary school, and Bishop O'Dowd High School.
Benito previously worked 11 years for Kaplan Test Prep in which he provided guidance to individuals and families looking to pursue their career and educational goals, particularly in areas of attending college, obtaining advanced degrees, and becoming licensed professionals. His work with Kaplan began in Irvine, California and took him to Athens Georgia, San Diego California, and Sacramento CA, where in each city he worked with high school students, university students, international students, and their families.
Benito attended University of California at Santa Cruz where he received a degree in Film and Digital Media. During summers, he worked as a Day Camp Counselor in Oakland CA. During this time he developed deep appreciation for the Bay Area and it's enriched life. This affinity with the Bay Area prompted him to move back to Oakland after being gone for 9 years.