About the Founder
Dia Borromeo Mitchell is a practitioner, researcher, and founder whose work centers human development, emotional well-being, and family life. For more than a decade she has worked across education, youth mental health, and community settings, with consistent attention to how children, adolescents, and caregivers function in environments that are often under resourced and highly demanding.
Dia holds a Master’s degree in Human Development and is a doctoral candidate in Infant and Early Childhood Development. Her graduate and post graduate studies focus on child and family development, early relationships, and mental health, with advanced training in trauma responsive practice, caregiver support, and identity affirming care. Her work is grounded in developmental science and contemporary mental health research, and equally informed by extensive direct practice in classrooms, homes, and community programs.
Professional Focus
Across her roles, Dia’s work is organized around a small set of clear priorities. She attends closely to how stress, history, and identity appear in bodies, behavior, and relationships. She is skilled at translating complex concepts into support that is clear, precise, and usable for youth, young adults, caregivers, and professional teams. Her style is structured and reflective. She holds two questions at once. What is occurring internally for this individual or family. And, within their current context, what can change in a way that is realistic and protective of their well being.
In individual and family work this means sessions are focused, with time devoted to understanding reactions, exploring the experiences that shape them, and developing skills for the situations that recur at home, at school, or in relationships. In her work with schools, programs, and organizations, it means helping teams recognize patterns in what they observe, understand the developmental and emotional factors underneath, and design responses that can be maintained in real settings.
Path to Paáyo
Before founding Paáyo, Dia’s career included direct service, program design, and organizational partnership. She supported youth navigating school and peer stress, family transitions, grief, and identity questions. She worked alongside caregivers balancing significant responsibility with limited support and high expectations. She consulted with educators and community staff who wanted to respond more thoughtfully to the young people and families in their care while also managing their own capacity.
Across these experiences, a consistent picture emerged. Many families did not meet criteria for crisis services, yet lived with ongoing strain that affected their functioning and relationships. Young people were often described in records in ways that did not reflect their context or strengths. Caregivers and professionals carried substantial emotional labor with few dedicated spaces to think, feel, and plan. There was a clear need for a setting that was serious, developmentally informed, and grounded in mental health knowledge, while remaining nonclinical and accessible. Paáyo was established in response to that need.
Behind the Vision
Paáyo exists in response to the reality that many young people, caregivers, and professionals are managing significant emotional and relational strain within systems that were not designed around their lives. Young people are expected to grow, perform, and define themselves while navigating stress and questions of identity. Caregivers are expected to lead families while carrying their own histories and responsibilities. Professionals are asked to show up for others with limited support for their own mental and emotional load. Paáyo was created as a structured space where these realities can be named clearly and addressed with care.
What this means for you.
For people who engage with Paáyo, Dia’s background shapes the experience in concrete ways. Sessions are not informal conversations. They are intentionally structured, draw on a deep understanding of development and mental health, and remain closely tied to the details of your daily life. The work is designed to support three kinds of change. Greater clarity about what is happening internally. Greater awareness of how that connects to patterns in relationships and routines. And practical shifts that can be implemented over time.
For youth and young adults, this often looks like having a setting where their experiences are taken seriously, organized in ways that make sense, and connected to specific skills rather than to judgment or labels. For caregivers, it means working with someone who understands both the demands of caregiving and the developmental needs of children and adolescents, and who can help them hold both at once. For teams and organizations, it means partnering with someone who can connect research and practice without losing sight of the constraints and pressures staff face day to day.
Founder's Note
I did not set out thinking I would build a practice. I planned to do good work inside the systems that already existed. For years that meant classrooms, community programs, family meetings, and one more conversation at the end of the day. The moments that stayed with me were usually quiet ones. A teenager lingering at the doorway, half turned away but still asking one more question. A caregiver lowering their voice once everyone else had gone to admit that they were more tired than they had words for. A staff member pulling up a chair after a long day because something that happened with a young person was still sitting with them. In those conversations I remember feeling two things at once. What people were describing was serious and deserved time, and the settings we were in simply did not have room to stay with it. There was always another group waiting, another class coming in, another obligation pulling us away. We could begin something important, but we could not keep it long enough to really work with it. I also recognized pieces of my own story in what people were sharing. I knew what it meant to stay functional on the outside while sorting through a great deal internally. I understood the pressure to be dependable and composed, especially as a Black woman, while moving through systems that misread or overlooked what you carry. That personal knowledge made it impossible for me to treat any of these moments as incidental. Paáyo grew from a simple, persistent question. What would it look like for youth, young adults, and caregivers to have a place where their everyday lives are taken seriously enough to study, reflect on, and practice around, without needing to be in crisis or seeking a diagnosis. A place rooted in strong developmental and mental health knowledge that also understands how race, culture, gender, sexuality, and history shape what feels possible in the middle of an ordinary week. I have deep respect for therapy and for the clinicians doing that work. Many people need and benefit from formal treatment, trauma processing, and diagnostic care, and I regularly encourage it when that level of support is called for. Paáyo was never meant to replace that. It was built for a different kind of work. Here, we stay close to the real texture of your days, make sense of what is happening inside you and around you, and build skills for the moments that keep repeating. If you are reading this as a young person, a caregiver, or a professional and you recognize yourself anywhere in this description, you are within the group I had in mind when Paáyo moved from an idea to an actual practice. I am glad you are here. Dia Borromeo Mitchell, MJ, PhD(c) Founder, The Paáyo Collective