I grew up in the Andes in Ecuador, and from a young age I was drawn to how culture, family, and environment shape who we are.

That curiosity took me to Buenos Aires, where I trained as a psychologist in a city where psychoanalysis is part of everyday life — where being in therapy carries no stigma. That environment shaped me. It taught me that therapy is not a luxury or a sign of weakness. It is one of the ways we come to understand ourselves.

I went on to earn my MSW at the University of Pennsylvania, where I trained at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and at Penn's Counseling and Psychological Services. I have since trained in prolonged exposure for PTSD with Dr. Edna Foa, in dialectical behavior therapy, and in eating disorders and addictions at the William Alanson White Institute. I am currently deepening my study of relational psychoanalysis at the Stephen Mitchell Relational Study Center.

Today, I serve as Associate Director of Counseling at Vassar College, where I work with students from diverse backgrounds, design programs and supervise the next generation of therapists. I am also a guest lecturer at Harvard Divinity School, where I teach on mindfulness, Buddhist psychology, and their application to clinical work.

I know what it is to live between cultures and languages — to have studied, worked, and grown on three continents. I know how meaning shifts when you switch languages, how certain feelings only exist in your first language, and how some silences are cultural before they are personal.

My approach is psychodynamic and relational. I integrate CBT and DBT when they serve the work. But what I trust most is what happens between two people who are paying close attention.