Hello, I’m Sergio. I am a qualified psychotherapist in London, offering sessions in-person and online.

We often learn from a very young age that the price of maintaining a connection with others is to prune parts of ourselves away whilst strengthening others. We might learn that our needs, our desires, pleasures, joy, or even anger and boundaries must go just to keep those around us close. Even worse, this can begin so early on that we may not even have had a chance to know ourselves before we began adapting.

While these strategies helped us survive (and there should be space to honour these creative adaptations), those shunned parts, and the ways we learned to relate to them, stay with us, eventually resurfacing in the most important areas of life: sex, intimacy, and relationships. They show up in sometimes confusing and debilitating ways. Relationally, this can manifest as a constant fear of rejection, a tendency to people-please at the expense of your own boundaries, or alternating between craving closeness and pulling away when things feel too intimate. Sexually, it might look like sexual dysfunction, fluctuating desire, or a deep-seated shame regarding our sexual interests. It can also express itself in compulsive patterns, such as problematic pornography use, compulsive sexual behaviour, or the misuse of substances, and sometimes manifests as depression, fear, or a disconnect between our body and core identity. Ultimately, I believe these behaviours are not things to be fixed, but rather protective parts of ourselves that are waiting to be understood and integrated.

Learning how and why these parts, behaviours, thoughts, and/or dynamics are showing up now, is an integral part of the work I undertake with my clients. Given my core training is integrative, I draw on modalities that I have found consistently effective to explore this: Internal Family Systems (IFS) for processing deep memories and trauma; Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) for practical tools and goal-setting; and Attachment theory and relational work (focusing on our connection) to reveal deeper relational patterns to create insight and lasting change. My work is grounded in specialist psychosexual training (still ongoing) with the Contemporary Institute of Clinical Sexology and from my experience in the NHS at 56 Dean Street.

I work with a wide range of individuals and, from November, couples and multi-partner relationships. This includes people who are LGBTQIA+, heterosexual, non-binary, neurodiverse, and those practising non-monogamy or polyamory.

Therapy with me is not about fixing. It is about understanding your reasons, feelings, and behaviours. Once we understand them, you can decide what serves you best.