The Ocu-Pasión Podcast Combines Mental Health and Art, Meet the Founder!

Delsy Sandoval is a Guatemalan-American who grew up in a very traditional household in East L.A. Pretty early on, she felt the need in her community for mental health, leading her down the path to make an impact and improve the lives of the people living there. She is now the creator of the podcast “Ocu-Pasión” where she incorporates art as a tool to heal trauma.  We got to talk to her about her journey.

There is a mind body connection that happens when you are doing art. Dancing, singing or painting can help making that connection. You are exploring feelings in a language that is safe.

I’ve worked with people who dealt with a lot of abuse and developed social anxiety and isolation and are not comfortable dealing with other people because trust is gone. We created a program where we explore different fields, theater, rap, hiphop and I can see a transformation and it’s night and day.

When the pandemic hit a lot of programs were shut down, so when wondering how could we have connection and the community voice while being in the lockdown, I realized a podcast could do it. I started looking for podcasts that combined art and mental health, I found a few, but couldn’t find many hosted by Latinas. There is a special connection when you see yourself represented and relate to it.  So I got myself educated about how to do a podcast and went for it!

I was playing with the concept of “Occupying space” and “Passion”, but with the Spanish twist, and it just sounded right.

We’ve had people who are ballerinas, gardeners, people in theater, singers, Adassa (from Encanto), Luis Rodriguez who is running for governor was on the show talking about her poetry, the winner of project runway among others.