A Spanish-Speaking Therapist in Long Beach
Spanish is my first language. Sessions can be in Spanish, in English, or in both, in person in Long Beach or by video anywhere in California.
Therapy in Spanish, English, or both in the same hour.
I was born and raised in Madrid, and Spanish is my first language. I did not learn it in a classroom so that I could get through a session in it. It is the language I grew up in.
Many bilingual people do not think in one language at a time. A sentence starts in English and the feeling arrives in Spanish. You do not have to pick one before you sit down, and you do not have to translate yourself before you tell me what is going on.
If you would rather read about this practice in Spanish, or send it to someone who would, there is a page written in Spanish. It was written in Spanish, not passed through a translator.
Why the language you grew up in matters in this work.
Madrid, Galicia, and arriving here at thirteen.
My father's family is from Galicia, on the northern coast of Spain, and a good part of my boyhood was spent there. I moved to the United States at thirteen with my mother, and I spoke no English. I learned it by getting it wrong in front of people until I stopped getting it wrong.
I do not tell that as a hardship story. It is a story about adjustment. But it does mean that if you are navigating identity, displacement, or the loneliness of straddling two cultures and belonging completely to neither, you will not have to explain it to me from the beginning.
One thing worth knowing: my Spanish is from Spain. Whatever yours is, use your own words, not mine.
What I work on with Spanish-speaking men and couples.
The work is the same in either language. With men: sexual behavior that has stopped feeling like a choice, pornography use, the shame around it, boundaries, and saying what you want without disappearing or attacking. With couples: rebuilding trust after an infidelity or a disclosure. With the partner who found out: steadying what is happening to you, on your own terms, whether or not your partner is in therapy with me.
I do not treat your sexuality as a defect, and nothing you bring will be met with a flinch. I am also direct. I say what I notice, in whichever language we are using.
In person in Long Beach, by video across California.
The office is at 192 Park Ave in Long Beach. I also work by secure video with people anywhere in California. I am licensed in California only, so you need to be in the state during sessions.
You can write to me in Spanish through the contact page, and the first phone call can be in Spanish too.
What Spanish speakers, and the people searching for them, ask first.
Frequently Asked Questions
The first call can be in Spanish
A short phone consultation, in English or Spanish. Ask what you need to ask and decide nothing. If you are in crisis, call or text 988.