About Us
Monica loves Red Velvet!
Hi, my name is Monica Pena-Aviles, MS, LMFT. Welcome to The Bittersweet Score! If you didn’t know already, The BitterSweet Score is a quick and simple way of checking your emotions to determine how you feel about a situation. Our mission at The BitterSweet Score is to help people become aware of their emotions so they can make better decisions. As the lead for the Psychology portion of the business, I thought it would be good to tell you a little bit about me.
To start, yes, that is me in the picture with my husband. Red Velvet cupcakes are my favorite. Our friend Danette from Cakes Jagla makes the best cupcakes! But, I digress. I remember as a child everyone coming to me with their problems. They wanted to talk to me because I was a good listener. When it came time for me to pick a college major, it just made sense to pursue a degree in Psychology. It was something I was good at and something I had an interest in for as long as I could remember.
I am a Professional Therapist
Flash forward, I have been a therapist for over 20 years. My formal training is as a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT). As an LMFT, my focus is on relationships. Relationships are much broader than you may think. They consist of the connections we have with ourselves, how we relate to the world and to how the world relates back. Relationships are not just marriages and families. Over the years my experience has taught me to look at relationships and the environments they exist in to understand how everything interacts. My goal is to always find better ways to position the pieces of a relationship so as to get them working together.
Sometimes it’s hard to describe how you feel
As anyone who has been in therapy can attest, the hallmark of the work is feelings. You simply cannot do meaningful work without delving into the abyss of emotions. While I am a huge fan of critical thinking, as a Therapist, I often find myself targeting ones emotions by asking the famous “laying on-the-couch” question, “How does that make you feel?” Amazingly, I have found that the most difficult part of this simple question is the usual response, “I don’t know.” In fact, over the years, I have come to understand that people truly and honestly do not know how to describe how they feel. When put on the spot, they just struggle to find the proper words to describe their emotions.
So we delivered a solution…
What if people had a quick and easy way to describe their feelings right at their fingertips? A tool that would not only provide the right words to describe their feelings, but one that could help them hone in on their dominant emotions about almost anything! This is the goal of The BitterSweet Score. When you lack the words to describe how you feel or you have mixed-emotions, The BitterSweet Score will help you find all the right words and identify the true emotions living inside you.
Every day we are faced with decisions. Some are easy and straight forward others may be a bit trickier. Have you ever wondered how your feelings really break down? When we launch The BitterSweet Score, you will be able to take a free assessment that asks the simple question:
How does your success make you feel?
We are pretty sure you will find the results truly enlightening so stay tuned as launch day is nearing.
Do you have any similar questions about your feelings that you may want answered? Please share them in the comments.