You Are Not Broken, You Were Just Unprotected Featuring Kassandra Villarreal, M.S., LPC Associate

Angie is joined by her sister in Christ, Kassandra Villarreal, a Counselor and LPC Associate with a Master of Science in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi. With professional experience as a Youth Specialist at the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services and a deep commitment to supporting children, parents, and families, Kassandra brings both clinical insight and lived understanding to this conversation. Beyond her work, she is a devoted wife, mother of two boys, and community builder who hosts weekly coffee gatherings and intentional spaces for women to connect and heal.

In this episode, Angie and Kassandra gently shift the lens from the belief that people with foster care experience are “broken” to a more truthful and compassionate understanding: many of the wounds carried into adulthood were formed in the absence of protection, consistency, and care. Angie also reflects on how internalizing the “broken” narrative impacts self-worth, relationships, and the future we believe we deserve, and how healing begins when blame is removed from the self and placed where it belongs.

This episode is for anyone who has ever questioned their worth, struggled with shame around survival behaviors, or wondered if healing means fixing themselves rather than understanding what they were never given.

💭 What You’ll Hear in This Episode: • How the “broken” narrative forms in foster care and other systems of harm • The difference between being broken and being unprotected • Why survival behaviors were adaptive, not defective • How internalized shame shapes adult relationships and self-expectations • What healing looks like when we center safety, protection, and truth

🪞 Reflection Question: What parts of yourself did you label as broken that were actually doing their best to protect you? And were you instead just unprotected?

📚 Resources & Links Connect with Angie via email: https://angelas-newsletter-bc8a88.beehiiv.com/ Explore healing and identity resources at AngelaQuijadaBanks.com