About Me
As an immigrant I’m committed to work with diverse populations. My private practice focuses on pregnancy, parenting and early childhood.
I have extensive experience working with children 0-5 and their caregivers. Little children express themselves with their behavior. Therefore parents arrive to me when their children are having a hard time listening, expressing their emotions showing difficult behavior that interfere with their development.
Education and Training
I was born and raised in Mexico City. I earned my B.S. in Clinical Psychology in 1998 from the Universidad Iberoamericana (U.I.A). During my training I provided counseling to children, adolescents and adults. In 2000, I completed a long-distance, one-year training in Infant Psychopathology from a collaboration between an Educative Institution in Mexico and the University of Paris XIII. I pursued my Masters in Clinical Psychology from San Francisco State University graduating in 2005. I was trained at San Francisco General Hospital at the Infant-Parent Program (IPP) and worked at the Child Trauma Research Program (CTRP) with Dr. Alicia F. Lieberman and Dr. Patricia Van Horn, both experts in Early Childhood and Trauma and the developers of Child Parent Psychotherapy (CPP). Both programs are part of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). I have over 15 years of experience providing assessments, consultation and psychotherapy for pregnant women, young children and their families around anxiety, depression, behavioral issues, development and trauma. I have over a decade of experience as a consultant and trainer in Child Parent Psychotherapy (CPP) and enjoy giving talks about early childhood, attachment and trauma locally and internationally.
As a UCSF-CTRP staff-clinician, I participated in several longitudinal bilingual (English and Spanish) intervention studies, addressing prevention and treatment outcomes with traumatized child-parent dyads and at-risk pregnant women and their babies, including a study examining the effects of CPP on biomarkers implicated in the stress response in mother-child dyads who have experienced trauma.
I am a co-author of a book titled Make Room for Baby. Perinatal Child–Parent Psychotherapy to Repair Trauma and Promote Attachment, which explains the adaptation of CPP to the perinatal period and describes a preventive and treatment intervention for trauma during pregnancy and the postpartum period.
Professional Affiliations
- The California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (CAMFT)
- Postpartum Support International (PSI)
Certifications and Specialized Trainings
- Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders: Components of Care, Postpartum Support International
- Certified Fussy Baby Specialist: Fussy Baby Network, Erikson Institute
- The Newborn Behavioral Observations System (NBO), Brazelton Institute
- Registered Circle of Security Parent Educator
- Certified by the CA Center for Infant-Family and Early Childhood Mental Health Specialist and Reflective Practice Facilitator II
- Certified Attachment Vitamins trainer and facilitator, University of California, San Francisco, CA
- Endorsed Child Parent Psychotherapy (CPP) trainer, University of California, San Francisco, CA
Please feel free to call me at 925-446-1967 for a free 20-minute phone consultation or email me to ask any questions you have. I look forward to speaking with you.
