Dr. Lisa Vallejos knows how deep trauma can cut into a person’s soul.

Her now-9-year-old son, Gabriel, was born with a congenital heart defect that required him to undergo a life-saving heart transplant shortly after he was born.

That sent Vallejos searching for ways to manage her stress and uncertainty. She went on to earn her doctorate degree in psychology. The subject of her dissertation was trauma.

The now-38-year-old mother of two has come a long way since living in fear that her newborn baby might not live to see his first birthday.

For one thing, Gabriel is a now a happy and healthy child whose body shows no signs of organ rejection.

Dr. Vallejos has now returned to her alma mater at Regis University as an adjunct professor teaching counseling and psychology. But, when she walks the campus now, she’s free of the fear that once consumed her every day. Or at least that was the case until recently.

While some are celebrating the election of Donald Trump, others are experiencing anxiety and fear of what a Trump presidency might bring. As a Latina, she has concerns about whether members of her extended family may be deported.

“What we are experiencing is a cultural trauma,” Vallejos says.

She says she and her colleagues in the mental health community have seen an uptick in calls for emergency counseling since Tuesday’s election. As a psychologist, she has the capacity and the skills to manage her own feelings about our country’s unpredictable future.

Now, she’s using her professional training to help her children, her family and her friends, transform their anxiety and fears into something that results in positive change.

“I see trauma differently than most” she says, “I see it as a catalyst for positive change.”

The Denver Post reached out to Vallejos seeking suggestions for people in our community who may be hurting, or frustrated, even disgusted at what’s unfolding.

In addition to sharing her expertise in a Denver Post TV interview, she’s offering a few tips on how to have a peaceful conversation with someone when you strongly disagree with them:

Understand that we each have our own human experience that shapes our opinions.

Find the empathy to understand that our opinions develop out of our individual historic and cultural experiences.

When you’re engaged in conversation, ensure the other person that you hear, and understand, their position.

Even when you disagree with someone, have compassion for why they feel the way they do.

In the attached video segment, Dr. Vallejos goes in depth with how we can comfort our children who may be feeling anxious. She talks about why the protests we’re seeing across the country are a critical part of healing our collective wounds. And she talks about how the “cultural trauma” we’re experiencing could actually be the beginning of a positive transformation in our country.