About
A bit about me
Hi, this section is for me to introduce myself. You can also explore other related content in the navigation panel.
Let's start with a bit of background. I was born and raised in Chile and am of Spanish and Italian nationality. I grew up being a shy and intellectual kid who loved books and did well at school. I also practised many things growing up, like playing the flute, painting, basketball, writing, etc.
I have always loved the arts and creative expression, the feeling of being in the flow, solving things with inspiration, and the sense that the world exists only in that moment.
When deciding what to study, I chose psychology because it had many things I liked, and I liked way too many things. The ones that I appreciated were:
- It had humanities and sciences,
- It was related to working closely with people,
- It could answer many philosophical questions,
- I thought it would help me to understand characters,
- And get inspiration for my art.
So, my interests were quite varied. I also participated in other activities as I studied, like art classes in the art department, swimming, and martial arts.
At that time, the seeds of my thinking were taking shape. I liked authors that explored creativity, play, and spontaneity. I liked it when there was philosophy, but also when there were discoveries that could be based on evidence.
After finishing my undergrad (plus what here is a practical master's), I trained in an integrative approach to psychotherapy. For a few years, I continued studying and taking classes in the centre while seeing clients privately and in the institution.
As a therapist, many of my original intentions to study became helpful in my practice, as I saw sessions as a space of creativity. But, I also found myself trapped in many theoretical constraints, many rituals that did not have a strong foundation, and many assumptions that I felt I needed to follow, but I was unsure why.
I developed many ideas during that time. I initially worked with the concept of development because I wanted to deeply understand how we change so much from childhood to adulthood and the emerging developmental problems. I also wanted to understand the work of Ken Wilber, someone I found fascinating back then because he developed a model that integrated oriental spirituality with evolutionary psychology.
While studying development, I arrived at a slightly different conclusion than Wilber, seeing development as more flexible and playful. I was also searching for a question another author sparked in me: my true self.
The work of Donald Winnicott inspired me as soon as I read his first words. He focuses on playing, creativity, instinct, and spontaneity, and he developed a way of doing psychoanalysis with those values. One of his central concepts is the True Self, a creative core inside us.
These ideas have been reflected in my published works and my development as a therapist. From the beginning, I have incorporated techniques that allow me more creative exploration. I introduced drawing space and active imagination to my practice quite early on. Over time, I grew curious about how far these ideas could go.
That is what brought me to Edinburgh. I came to develop research into Transitionality, the theoretical concept that Winnicott developed to study creativity. I worked hard for four years on my research while tutoring and working in a charity in Leith.
The theory I developed advances Winnicott's while making it closer to all of us. My exploration into transitionality moved the concepts to a more philosophical plane, and therefore, it can be applied to most meaningful human experiences.
In short, transitionality means that we create a space between reality and fantasy. This space is inhabited by objects, like your toy when you were little, and then by cultural experiences as you grow up. This turns our understanding of the unconscious: it is not inside where we look but into the objects where the transitional space expands.
This idea was some relief. I finally understood my need for exploration, my path of learning things I liked, my love for crafts and the arts, and cultural experiences in general. Finally, the theories I used in my work explained my daily life.
After developing the concept of transitionality, I have been working on a creative approach to psychotherapy: CreaTherapy. I am creating a system of building blocks for a therapeutic practice. I have separated the philosophical aspect, the practical theories, and the traditions as different things. I am also giving more space to the dispositions and personal characteristics of the therapists. Doing so allows me to create an approach that fits the practitioner's life experience and journey and will enable us to take pieces depending on what we need, where we are, and how this connects with our client's lives and needs.
I hope this tells you a bit about me. It may help to know that I still practice drawing and painting, play the guitar and the piano, swim regularly, and enjoy watching series and movies. I have been learning how to cook because I find it fascinating how you can develop concepts with your food. I also have been trying to sing, even if it's hard.
Not long ago, I had the crazy idea of learning to code. This one has been the weirdest of the things I have tried because it feels far away from arts, psychology, and philosophy, which are my familiar topics. The more I delved into it, the more I saw it as a craft: putting pieces together, assembling, moving abstract concepts, and understanding the flows of information, the same things I do while doing arts, psychology, and philosophy. Learning to program has allowed me to develop this site and my other project, CreaTherapy, where I am crafting a new model to understand psychotherapy in a web app format.
Please keep exploring this site and its siblings.
Gabriel
yesterday