Specialty
Multicultural & Latina Identity
For the parts of yourself that don’t translate the same way in every room you’re in.
I remain attentive to how cultural backgrounds and multicultural identities can complicate our understanding of ourselves and our relationships. As a Latina, I bring both personal experience and empathy to this work.
Throughout my career I have worked closely with the Latino population, and as a daughter and granddaughter of immigrants, my interest in multicultural identities is both personal and professional. I also have extensive experience supporting clients from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds.
In practice this means you should not have to explain your family to me from first principles, or decide how much context to supply before you can say the actual thing.
What this can look like
- Being a different person in your family’s house than everywhere else
- Guilt about choices that are normal to your friends and not to your parents
- Being the one who translates — documents, appointments, feelings
- Carrying what your parents went through without having been there
- Loving your family and needing distance from them at the same time
How I work with this
Culture is not a topic we cover in one session and then set aside. It runs through the work, because it runs through your life.
A note on language: sessions are held in English. Clients are welcome to incorporate Spanish or Spanglish during sessions if that feels more natural — for many people some things only exist in one language. As a Latina with extensive experience working with the Latino community in both languages, I bring cultural awareness and lived understanding to my work. I do not offer therapy conducted in Spanish, and I would rather say that plainly than have you find out in a first session.
Approaches I draw on
Relational Therapy
Using what happens between us as real information about what happens everywhere else.
Feminist Therapy
Taking seriously that some of what you are carrying was handed to you.
Psychodynamic Therapy
Looking at where a pattern came from, not only at how to manage it.
Questions
Do you provide sessions in Spanish?
Sessions are held in English. Clients are welcome to incorporate Spanish or Spanglish during sessions if that feels more natural. As a Latina with extensive experience working with the Latino community in both languages, I bring cultural awareness and lived understanding to my work. I also have extensive experience supporting clients from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds.
Do I have to be Latina to work with you on this?
No. I work with clients from many ethnic and cultural backgrounds. What I offer is a therapist who treats culture as central rather than as background detail.
Interested in working together?
Online sessions for adults in Pennsylvania and Virginia.