Meet Dr. Alba Eunice Lara

What I believe

I am deeply influenced by people from all walks of life, by psychoanalytic theory, and by my personal experiences of suffering and joy in the face of loss and illness. Because of this, my work in psychiatry and psychotherapy is, at its core, reverent to humanity. I don't believe in magic pills, though some really help. Rather, I believe in discovering what is true, facing the music, and finding real solutions.

I am drawn to the unconscious dimensions of human experience, and to the ways symptoms and narratives often point beyond what is immediately knowable. I like to have fun talking things out loud with my patients. Within our dialogue, there is often a deep sense of connection in the playfulness, shared grief, and authenticity that arises when two people are fully present with one another while trying to solve a difficult problem.

Similar to the style of one of my favorite analytic writers, Tom Ogden, I experience the clinical encounter as a shared "third space," something unique that emerges between two people rather than being located solely in one or the other. In that space, meaning and healing are not extracted so much as discovered and co-created, as if a new piece of art.

I see my role as both clinician and participant in that process: offering structure, knowledge, and containment, while remaining open to what cannot be fully known, predicted, or reduced to diagnosis. At its best, my craft is both disciplined and creative, grounded in science but alive in relationship.