MEET ERIKA
My Story
Since childhood I was naturally inquisitive, constantly asking questions. Adults found me annoying and other kids seemed amused by this. However, my internal experience was one of deep loneliness, social inadequacy and terror of intimate spaces. Most of the time, I felt like an orphan.
Decades later, I discovered, through hard introspection work, that my relentless questioning had, at its core, a desire to relinquish this inner anguish through some kind of explanation. So, I studied Neuroscience at University.
Neuroscience was fascinating, but it didn’t have all the answers. After a very painful separation, I initiated my therapy journey. The break-up triggered a cornucopia of open emotional wounds that had been there since childhood, and which I had very successfully masked my whole life. The pain was so great I started having suicidal thoughts.
Fortunately, following my Family Systems Training, I had enrolled on a Body & Movement Psychotherapy training course with Rio Abierto España. This changed my life. This discipline works through the body, using movement to integrate our emotions, thoughts and sense of belonging in this world. Underlying the therapeutic approach is the idea that self-discovery is ongoing and that we have all the potential to find and be our authentic self. This approach saved my life.
These trainings, for me, including Gestalt and becoming a Doula, gave me the tools to support women and families during pregnancy, labour and postpartum. Since the global upheaval of the COVID era, I transitioned from Doula work to opening up my Psychotherapist Practise, Ficus Therapy.
I am now grateful to be able to offer the support and guidance I once myself received, and to keep growing professionally. Shamans call themselves ‘wounded healers’. I believe this, too, can be a therapist.
Why ficus?
One of my maternal grandmother’s favourite trees was a Ficus Carica. This is the species of tree that produces the Fig. This fruit is a symbol of the feminine and the sweetness in all of us, both men and women. And, as destiny has it, my spiritual teacher is called Graciela Figueroa, whose name could be translated from medieval Spanish as “Grace, who lives near the fig trees”.
For all these reasons, I have chosen the name, Ficus Therapy, to represent the work I do and offer to adults who wish to embark on a journey of self-discovery and healing.
Like a tree, we all start off as seeds. Some seeds can take up to 10 centuries to germinate, waiting for their time to sprout! Sprouting requires optimal temperature, the right humidity, and sufficient light. However, a seed may still sprout in subpar conditions, in soil that may be deficient in certain minerals or properties.
Human beings are very similar to this. We are conceived, gestated, and birthed into this Earth. However, we cannot choose the soil in which we must grow. Sometimes, that which we needed the most was lacking in our family or the society into which we were born.
Eventually, we enter adulthood having learnt to mask what kind of seed we were originally. Introspection into our childhood can help us recognise what was missing in the grounds where our seed was planted. As children, we can more easily identify if we lacked love, recognition, value, care, compassion, solidarity, justice, kindness, etc.
How we faced these deficiencies as children, which undoubtedly caused suffering, created our defence mechanisms or adaptation which would then later become our adult personality.
Becoming aware of this concept, as adults, allows us to question our story and give ourselves the opportunity to consciously replenish that insufficient loam. A seed contains a whole forest within it, and so our human potential holds all of humanity. It is unto us to decide if we want to nourish the forest of solidarity, compassion, love, kindness and equality.