Esther Lapite-Garrett

Dr. Esther Lapite-Garrett is a licensed psychologist, the founder of Alafiora, and a longstanding ally and affirming clinician to the LGBTQ+ and MOGAI communities. Her investment in this community is not new. She began her early clinical career at the San Diego LGBT Community Center, providing trauma-informed care to BIPOC and sexual and gender minoritized individuals navigating some of the most complex intersections of identity, safety, and survivorship. That grounding has never left her practice and continues to exist as Alafiora. Alafiora is a premium private practice specializing in depth-oriented, attachment-centered care for individuals navigating complex sexual trauma, love obsession, limerence, compulsive sexual behavior, and emotional dysregulation that tends to be misread among those whose identities have already been marginalized by the systems meant to support them. My clients who identify within the MOGAI community often carry layers that extend well beyond the presenting concern: sexual trauma that occurred during gender exploration or transition, same-gender and genderqueer intimate partner sexual violence, and the particular grief of having been harmed within spaces that were supposed to be safe. They wake through the night with a body that will not settle. They find themselves reaching for sex impulsively, not from desire but from the need to feel something, or to feel nothing. They cycle through obsessive thoughts about someone they cannot stop wanting, long after every rational part of them knows the situation has ended. They make choices in moments of emotional flooding that they do not recognize as their own afterward. The behavior escalates. The shame that follows is its own wound. And still, the pattern repeats. What a client can expect from a first visit is a space without alarm. Every part of their identity is welcomed here without condition, without pathologizing, and without the kind of clinical misstep that comes from a provider who is technically affirming but experientially unfamiliar. The first visit is not about being assessed. It is about being met, seen, and fully recognized. Sessions are available virtually, in person, and on location across multiple states. Alafiora is a private-pay practice. Visit https://www.alafiora.com/ to learn more or inquire confidentially.