I was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where I graduated with a Master of Psychology degree at the University of Buenos Aires (1986).
Since then, I have completed many additional training and courses for psychotherapists. I have lectured at the University level and have delivered many presentations and workshops in different countries to diverse audiences.
I like to believe that I support, understand, challenge, and help people dealing with their pain in a way that lessens the fear of what they may be experiencing. I believe I open myself to the enigmatic and uniqueness of each person who comes to see me and I celebrate the humanity in and with them.
When I turned 40 years of age, I immigrated to Canada. I continue pursuing personal and professional projects that keep me passionate and lively.
Throughout my career, I have encountered amazing teachers that have given me the opportunity to deepen my experience in the art of listening, feeling, appreciating and comprehending human beings.
Since becoming a psychotherapist, I have worked with clients from all socioeconomic backgrounds, from the very rich to refugees who have escaped death with only the clothes on their back. I have worked with mothers and fathers, couples in crisis, neglected children, people who are grieving a recent or an old loss, adopted children, dismantled families, desperate adults, immigrants seeking financial improvement or those who are transitioning from stable family environments to pursue new relationships in a new country.
In summary, I have been in close contact with human pain, sadness, shame, grief, and to those who have a sense of powerlessness or are in denial of loss. I have experience in my career dealing with, I believe, the entire spectrum of human experiences.
I like to believe that I support, understand, challenge, and help people dealing with their pain in a way that lessens the fear of what they may be experiencing. I believe I open myself to the enigmatic and uniqueness of each person who comes to see me and I celebrate the humanity in and with them.
In Argentina, Chile and Canada I have been actively involved with my private practice as well as working within different private and government settings.
My online practice has for years been the way in which clients from different countries, whether they be Spanish or English speaking, could continue with their sessions, thereby avoiding any disruptions to their therapeutic processes.
My academic and professional trajectory
Since graduating in 1986 as a Psychologist to the present time, my personal and professional inquiries into the field of human wellbeing have never ceased. This ongoing journey has continued by taking a postgraduate training in Cognitive Psychotherapy at the Cognitive Therapy Centre (CTC, Argentina, 1998).
My passion and curiosity about the human body and body image, sadly inspired by the deterioration of my mother in her struggle with Multiple Sclerosis, has led me to explore pioneers for body therapeutic techniques such as Gerda Alexander, Moshe Feldenkrais. and finally to training in a sophisticated Martial Art such as Tai Chi Chuan. At the Tai Chi Chuan Argentinian Association, I rose to the level of instructor to level I students (1987-1991).
My experience includes teaching a course called Body Therapeutic Techniques (TCT as the Spanish abbreviation, from 1993 to 1996) at the University of El Salvador at Buenos Aires, Argentina in the MusicTherapy Department. This training has subsequently become popular among Psychotherapists and other Health professionals.
Prior to emigrating to Canada at the end of 1998, I had the privilege of working on Chiloe Island, Chile, with the renowned Gestalt Psychotherapist, Dr. Adriana Schnake who I represented in Lisbon, Portugal when I did the introductory speech to her book Dialogues with the Body (1997).
Once in Canada, I had the great opportunity to be hired by the Government of Manitoba as the Cross-Cultural Mental Health Specialist, a position I held from 2000 to 2015). I was in charge of assessments, supervision and treatment, as well as acting as a consultant to other mental health services. Subsequent to this experience, I transferred to another program which also serves families within a multicultural setting, a position I have held from 2017 to the present time.
These experiences have further piqued my curiosity, especially with regard to important topics such as Traumatic Stress and Complex Trauma. The connection between stress-trauma and human physiology has always been the guidepost which has led me to study cutting edge research and therapeutic approaches in this field. Issues such as how does the body react to stress, especially to traumatic stress? As well, where exactly is the traumatic experience located in the body, how does the physiology react to it and how long does this reaction stay in the body? Is it ever discharged?
Coupled with this is the subject of resilience, the capacity to “bounce back to a balanced stage” and how it is affected by traumatic stress. I am also interested in the extent to which the formation of early childhood experiences set the template for resilience and the subset of how secure attachment contributes to form a solid template for resilience. These kinds of questions spur me on to my ongoing quest for greater understanding of this field of interest.