Welcome! My name is Albania Alegria and I am a California Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. I identify as Latina and am bilingual in Spanish and English.
I feel honored in supporting people to get unstuck and build their inner-healer inside them.
The modalities I use require a slower pace where the client is an active participant inside and outside of sessions. We focus more on body-oriented practices, and minimal talking, so that your body gets a chance to heal in a slow and sustainable way (where talk-therapy can delay and sometimes not help with symptoms).
I value co-creating, quality presence, respect, consciousness, radical responsibility, compassion, and warmth.
***Please note: Clients will be kindly referred out to specialized providers that do not align with the population I currently work with. I am NOT a good fit for historical or present conditions like: self-harm, risk of suicide, addiction of any kind, body dysmorphia/eating disorders history of current, personality disorders, depression, relationship violence, Perpetrator of violence or abuse (e.g child abuse, domestic violence, animal abuse, etc), and Personality Disorders.
I will be doing a consultation with you when you book a session to make sure we are a good fit. Thank you!
What can clients expect to take away from sessions with you?
The first and second session we get to know each other through introductions, and we go into the assessment further.
Using your insurance does require a diagnosis, therefore we will look at the current symptoms impacting your life.
We will also explore some goals you have for therapy.
Explain to clients what areas you feel are your biggest strengths.
My greatest strengths:
Deeply listening and present,
Calm, soft, and use of appropriate-humor.
Lovingly interrupt and challenge clients,
Share tools so the client ignites their inner-healer.
Experience in different modalities and interweaving culture.
About Albania Alegria
Appointments
Free consults, virtual
My treatment methods
EMDR
After the assessment and treatment plan phase, both client and I discussed EMDR and have their consent . Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, is an evidenced-based approach to assisting clients to desensitize and reprocess earlier events that impacted their mind and body, and are currently exhibiting symptoms. EMDR helps to transform limiting beliefs (stemmed from the earlier experience) and organize the memory (or sensory or feeling), to a more adaptable and positive way, all while decreasing or neutralizing present day symptoms. EMDR can be done virtually and can take several sessions for full completion.
Somatic
I use a modality called Somatic Experiencing (SE). We work with the body to heal the trauma and stressors that were experienced in the past, to process, and relieve the body in the present moment. Most individuals get stuck in a survival response (fight, flight, freeze/shutdown), and they will continually sense danger when actual danger is not present, or completely shuts down and loose capacity to live in the present moment. As a result, the individual has an unhealthy nervous system with low capacity, which sooner or later can lead to chronic pain and symptoms, as illnesses. SE helps to slowly access the body memory (as we know trauma is stored in the body), to allow them to complete the natural cycle of self-protection that they were meant to have in the first place. SE is slow and works with the present, using body-oriented tools to help the person feel regulated inside themselves, safely discharge the stuck energy, and restoring back to safety.
Internal Family Systems (IFS)
I use a Internal Family Systems-Informed approach to get to know the parts of us that are protecting us and may prevent us from embodying our true self.
Grief Therapy
We learn about what grief is and how to have a relationship with grief so it doesn't overpower our lives all the time. Grief is the process of a loss (a loved one, a move, a job loss, break-ups, etc.).
Mind-body approach
Using the other treatments stated, I use a holistic (mind and body) approach, as this is what creates sustainable healing. You learn the skills to implement a growth mindset, as well as how to regulate your nervous system, and grow it's ability to embody more of the version you want to be living in.
