Cristina Camaras Lieberson LCSW

I have a long experience in working with people affected by traumatic adversities. Refugees, immigrants, disadvantaged populations, individuals affected by family history of trauma, mental illness, and abuse. Having a strong interest in historical and intergenerational trauma, I work with clients in understanding and breaking the cycles of disadvantage, focusing on creating a safe psychological environment, a new form of attachment to oneself, others, and places.

Anxiety is a symptom. An undifferentiated form of fear that permeates life. Fear of abandonment, of being rejected, of not being able, of not being good enough. The most primal form of fear, that of being abandoned, takes different forms: separation anxiety, attachment disorders, panic attacks, relationship issues. A psychodynamic, attachment-based approach treats the root causes of the fear, and eventually alleviates the symptoms.

"The therapist strives to be reliable, attentive, and sympathetically responsive to their patient’s exploration, and so far as they can, to see and feel the world through their patient’s eyes, namely to be empathic." John Bowlby, (1988). A secure base: Clinical applications of attachment theory.

CBT is based on a cognitive approach to mental illness. It was developed by psychologist Aaron T. Beck in the 60s in the U.S. He hypothesized that people’s emotions and behaviors are influenced by their perceptions of events, rather than by the situations per se. CBT aims to alleviate distress by helping clients develop more adaptive cognitions and behaviors. It is the most widely researched and empirically supported psychotherapeutic method.

Psychodynamic psychotherapy originates in Freud's psychoanalysis. It is an in-depth form of talk-therapy that explores the emotional origins of the issues clients bring to therapy and addresses the person as a whole. The main interventions used are exploration, self-reflection and self-examination. Client develops a deep understanding of oneself and new, healthier ways to deal with life.

Is a modern form of psychodynamic therapy. It uses mentalization as a treatment technique and a goal to address insecure attachment styles: anxious-ambivalent and avoidant. The entire personality is at work: a new sense of security, of understanding patterns of relating to self and to others are examined and resolved. The therapeutic relationship is used as a tool to heal an insecure attachment style that creates emotional dysregulation and distress in interpersonal relations.