Today we’d like to introduce you to Lisseth Altamirano.
Hi Lisseth, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I am 23 years old and I am from Ecuador. There, I studied and trained to be a clinical psychologist, participating in several practices; in schools, hospitals, and individual therapy. In the course of my life, I got to meet, who currently is my husband, with whom I have a home in Orlando, FL. Apart from moving for love to this beautiful city, I brought with me a suitcase full of dreams and goals. Being in a new city, starting from scratch, I questioned how I could perform my career and help people. From here then, I remembered the effectiveness of online therapy, I remembered the confinement we all went through and how I was able to help several patients through online consultations. That is how I decided to open my professional account on Instagram with the goal of assisting Spanish-speaking people to have psychoeducational material and at the same time have online psychological therapies to better care for their mental health. With the aspiration of expanding my knowledge and helping many more people, I am studying English as one of my biggest objectives is to be able to earn a Ph.D. at UCF and to be able to work online or in person. I like the hospital sector and hope to gain experience working in one so that I can later have my own office, always with the aim of protecting the mental health of my patients. I am a young woman who came to Orlando with many dreams with the hopes to fulfill them soon with a lot of effort and perseverance.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
I face many obstacles/challenges in order to be able to reach my goal. My first obstacle is the language barrier. Learning a new language is difficult and needing to learn it to be able to use in a professional setting adds more pressure and difficulty. I am working on tackling this obstacle by taking daily English classes, completing lessons and practicing language skills. My second obstacle/challenge is to validate my Ecuadorian Clinical Psychology Degree to the USA and be able to attend UCF to continue my studies to obtain a Ph.D. in my career. This challenge requires multiple steps that I am preparing for such as having my degree and coursework validated, leveling up my English skills, and informing myself in all the requirements needed to be able to qualify to attend this institution.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I have professional practice in Ecuador. I performed evaluations, treatments, and group therapies at the ‘Sacred Heart Psychiatric Institute’, in the addiction treatment unit. I also worked at the Hospital Del Rio, where I performed evaluations and treatments in the infant / adolescent population. During quarantine, I volunteered to be a part of the Tele-assistance group in psychological first aid for the Ministry of Public Health of Ecuador. This was important as people were beginning to feel the impact of being in lockdown for extended periods and suffering from the losses of fellow family members and friends.
I performed Individual therapies in the school sector as well as group psychotherapies for parents who had children with disabilities.
I also performed Virtual counseling on psychological topics for a company and their employees called the ‘Unno Parts Psychology Project’.
For my thesis, I worked on a project to create an interactive manual with the goal of creating and guiding teachers to lead a positive classroom coexistence with children in the school setting.
Finally, I took part in a course to obtain a certificate in Clinical Sexology.
Contact Info:
- Email: tuespaciopsic.lissethalt@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tuespacio_psic/
