About me
I'm Luis Ramírez Vega. Most people just call me Luis.
Like a lot of the people who end up in my room, I got here by way of somewhere else. I grew up and trained as a clinical psychologist in Puerto Rico, spent years living and working in the US Virgin Islands, and now I'm in Barcelona. I know firsthand what it takes to rebuild a life, and a whole daily vocabulary, somewhere that isn't where you started. That is usually part of why expats and internationals settle in with me quickly. I have done the thing they are in the middle of doing.
I work as a native speaker of both English and Spanish. Not a language I picked up for a certificate, but two languages I have actually lived in, so we can work in whichever one fits you and move between them mid-sentence if that is how your head really runs.
My homologation with Spain's Ministerio de Universidades is in progress and expected in October 2026. Until then I practice as a therapist, with the training and experience set out below.
What I work with
Over the past decade I have worked across some genuinely different corners of this field: community mental health, systemic family therapy, an inpatient psychiatric hospital, and sexual-health and LGBTQ+ care. Those settings don't collapse into one tidy specialty, and I'm not going to pretend they do. What they gave me is range, and a feel for sitting with very different people in very different kinds of trouble. Most of my focused work has been in individual and couples therapy, and if you want to see how I actually think about a particular issue, the individual and couples pages go into real detail.
A good part of my LGBTQ+ experience, including affirming, trans-inclusive work with people who are transitioning or who simply want to be met and addressed as who they are, comes from a year in an HIV and STI clinic in Puerto Rico. It shaped how I work, and it runs through a lot of what I do now.
Where I trained and practiced
- 2012 to 2015: Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, Interamerican University, Puerto Rico.
- From 2012: Case manager, and later a practicing therapist, at CISME, a community mental health clinic in Mayagüez, under Dr. Carlos Lavó Cornejo.
- 2015: Began a Master of Science in Clinical Psychology at Carlos Albizu University, where I started seeing clients at a practitioner level.
- 2016: Continued the master's at Ponce Health Sciences University.
- Summer 2017: A five-month placement at the Roberto Clemente Family Guidance Center in Manhattan, training in systemic family therapy under Dr. Jaime Inclán.
- 2018 to 2020: Inpatient and chronic psychiatric care at Metro Pavía Health System, under Dr. Lisa Marrero.
- 2021 to 2022: Clinical internship at a Puerto Rican government clinic for HIV, STD, and STI diagnosis and treatment, an LGBTQIA+ supportive setting where much of my sexual-health and affirming-care experience took shape.
- 2023: Completed my Master of Science in Clinical Psychology.
- Now: In Barcelona, seeing clients online and in person in Eixample.
Research and publications
My research has appeared in peer-reviewed psychology journals. Both of these come from the same study of quality of life and psychosocial well-being among intersex people in Puerto Rico, one published in English and one in Spanish:
- "Quality of Life and Psychosocial Well-Being among Intersex-Identifying Individuals in Puerto Rico: An Exploratory Study," in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (MDPI).
- "Una Vida Interyacente: Una Exploración a la Calidad de Vida y Salud Psicofísica de las Personas Intersexuales" ("An Intersex Life: An Exploration of Quality of Life and Psychophysical Health of Intersex People"), ResearchGate, January 2018.
Want to see if this is the right fit for you?
Book a free 20-minute discovery call. We talk through what is bringing you in, what you have tried, and whether the ten-session frame is the right tool for it. No charge, no commitment.