"I believe in emotional health. I think that having emotions is as natural as your appetite and that having emotional difficulties is as human as experiencing hunger. Therefore, it is my conviction that processing our emotions in therapy is as necessary as any other visit to a doctor: either for a check-up, when there are initial symptoms, or once the problem has already manifested and is making our life somehow dysfunctional. I avoid labels or focusing on pathology; instead, I concentrate on helping my clients to overcome the doubts, difficulties or challenges that get in the way of a calm, stable and fulfilling life."

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Antonieta Contreras is a psychotherapist, author, educator, and international speaker specializing in trauma, emotional functioning, and psychological healing. Her work focuses on helping individuals understand and transform the emotional patterns that shape their lives, relationships, and sense of self.

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Trained as a mathematician before pursuing a career in mental health, Antonieta brings together systems thinking, neuroscience, developmental psychology, and psychotherapy to explore how emotional experiences become organized and how lasting change occurs. Her clinical work integrates decades of experience in trauma treatment with a deep interest in the mechanisms through which people adapt, suffer, heal, and grow.

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She is the author of Traumatization and Its Aftermath: A Systemic Approach to Understanding and Treating Trauma Disorders, recipient of multiple national book awards, and How Deep Is the Wound? A Guide to Investigating, Understanding, and Resolving Your Emotional Pain, winner of the Foreword INDIES and IPPY Awards in Psychology and . Her writing and teaching challenge common misconceptions about trauma and emotional suffering while offering practical and compassionate frameworks for understanding psychological distress.

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Antonieta has trained extensively in trauma, attachment, neurobiology, EMDR, neurofeedback, contemplative psychotherapy, Gestalt therapy, and other evidence-informed approaches. Over the course of her career, she has developed an integrative perspective that emphasizes emotional organization, adaptation, and the human capacity for change rather than pathology alone.

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She is the developer of the Emotional Architecture Model (EAM), an emerging framework that conceptualizes emotions as anticipatory organizational processes that shape perception, meaning, action, and identity over time. She is also the creator of the Structural Consideration of Others Model (SCOM), which explores how the capacity to recognize, maintain, and integrate the reality of other minds shapes emotional development, relationships, accountability, and social functioning. Her current work focuses on understanding how emotional and relational patterns become organized and how psychotherapy can facilitate their reorganization to promote greater flexibility, resilience, connection, and well-being.

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Based in New York City, Antonieta maintains a private practice, teaches and supervises clinicians internationally both in English and Spanish, and presents regularly on trauma, emotional health, neuroscience, and psychotherapy all over the world. She has served as faculty, curriculum developer, and co-director for postgraduate trauma training programs, teaches Human Sexuality at New York University, and continues to contribute to the advancement of trauma and emotionally focused clinical practice.

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At the heart of her work is a simple conviction: emotional suffering is part of the human adaptive process, and many forms of dysfunction arise when emotional patterns become rigid, disconnected from present reality, or organized around outdated forms of protection. Understanding how emotions become structured and maintained may be one of the most important steps toward healing, growth, and a more fulfilling life.

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Read about her previous engagements here

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Find out how to join one of her consultation groups here