Laura Cerdán, a psychologist who guides people to self-love from within

Self-esteem, relationships, and an approach that always contextualizes the individual

"My therapeutic approach is based on understanding the individual within their context, guiding them to understand what they are experiencing, and helping them build realistic tools to regulate themselves, practice self-care, and relate more healthily with themselves and others."

Laura Cerdán is a psychologist and author of To Love Yourself Better, a book that hints at what drives her work: helping people build a healthier relationship with themselves. Her practice, lcpsicologia.com, is geared towards adults who come with a damaged self-concept, relational patterns that weigh them down, and an internal voice that constantly demands. Laura's work involves guiding this slow, real process of learning to speak to oneself differently.

In this Eholo Voices interview, Laura shares what has shaped her professionally, how she views the future of psychology, and what it means for her to practice with more calm thanks to Eholo.

Understanding the individual within their context

Some approaches start with the symptom. Laura's approach starts with the whole person: their history, their relationships, the patterns they learned, and the ones they want to change. This means slowing down the process, not going straight to a solution, but first building a shared understanding of what's happening.

Her specialization in attachment styles and the impact of parenting styles on emotional development—references she attributes to Mary Ainsworth and Diana Baumrind—translates in her practice into something very concrete: helping individuals understand where their ways of relating come from, so they can then change them.

"Often, therapeutic change doesn't just come from 'understanding,' but from being able to put into words experiences that were disorganized or without meaning."

The biggest challenge… and the best moment

The most prevalent challenge in Laura's work has a specific name: supporting individuals with severely damaged self-esteem, where the suffering is not only individual but also relational.

"The difficulty lies in helping individuals stop defining themselves solely by their discomfort or by what they 'don't do well.' This involves a slow process of emotional reconstruction, where the therapeutic relationship, validation, and psychoeducation allow for the development of a more compassionate view of oneself."

And the best moment, the one that makes everything worthwhile, arrives when that process begins to shift.

"The best moment usually appears when the individual begins to change their internal dialogue: when they stop speaking to themselves from a place of demand or guilt and start doing so from understanding. At that point, small daily changes—setting boundaries, asking for help, tolerating emotions without avoiding them—become indicators of a real transformation process. It's the moment when 'loving oneself better' stops being an idea and starts becoming an experience."

Close and practical support

Laura defines Eholo with two words that speak volumes about how she also understands her own work:

"Close and practical support."

When the administrative side is taken care of, energy goes where it needs to: to the practice, to the patients, to the clinical work that matters.

The future: technology with connection

Laura clearly sees what's coming in the profession: more technological integration, more online therapy, more digital tools. But what interests her most about this trend isn't the technology itself, but the challenge it presents.

"Integrating technology into clinical practice, not as a substitute, but as support. The challenge will be to maintain clinical quality and the therapeutic bond in these formats."

Emotional tracking apps, virtual reality for exposure therapy in anxiety, AI as support for assessment or psychoeducation: the future she describes is already arriving. The question, she says, is how to integrate it without losing what cannot be delegated to any tool.

Imagining the practice five years from now

Laura's vision is detailed and consistent with everything she does today. A hybrid practice, with in-person and online sessions. Technology integrated naturally, non-invasively, as support for follow-up between sessions. And a process-based clinical approach: fewer rigid labels, more understanding of how each person functions.

"I imagine collaborating more with schools, families, doctors, or guidance teams, especially in childhood and adolescence, because many problems aren't well understood when viewed in isolation."

A networked, open practice, connected to her patients' environment. Not a closed office.

Inspiration and References

📚 Book that changed her way of thinking — Man's Search for Meaning, by Viktor Frankl. "One of those books that forces you to rethink what truly sustains a person when everything else falls apart."

🎙 Essential Podcast — Mejor Hablar. "It normalizes the idea that talking isn't just 'telling things,' but a psychological process in itself. How we talk, what we avoid, how we listen to ourselves has a direct impact on emotional regulation, identity, and relationships."

💭 If she weren't a psychologist… — "Probably in the field of education, very close to the classroom."

💬 Life-defining phrase — "Don't try to please everyone."

🍽 Dream dinner — "Definitely with a loved one who is no longer with us, to hug them again."

✨ Professional inspirations — Mary Ainsworth, for her studies on attachment styles and their impact on socio-emotional development. And Diana Baumrind, for her classification of parenting styles, the foundation for the book To Love Yourself Better.

Learn more about Laura

🔗 lcpsicologia.com