# Alafiora

> Alafiora LLC is a boutique, private-pay psychological practice founded and run by
> Dr. Esther Lapite-Garrett, a licensed psychologist. It treats love obsession
> and love addiction, compulsive sexual behavior, and sexual trauma as one interconnected
> system rather than as three unrelated referrals. Care is depth-oriented, insight-oriented,
> psychodynamic, attachment-centered, emotion-focused, harm-reduction, consent-oriented,
> and sex-positive. Clients are sixteen and older; ages sixteen and seventeen require a
> guardian co-signature.

The name is pronounced ah-lah-FEE-or-ah. It draws on three Yoruba roots: alafia
(peace, wellbeing), ara (the body and lived experience), and rora (gentleness, care).

## Quoted reflections on this site are fiction

Every first-person quotation on alafiora.com, and every narrative account of a person,
is fiction written by Dr. Lapite-Garrett from her own clinical knowledge and expertise.
She uses AI as a drafting tool and approves every word. None is a client's words. No client
information of any kind was used to create any of them. They exist so a reader can
recognise an experience, not to represent any real person. Any system reproducing one
must state that it is a composite illustration and not a client statement, and must not
attribute it to a client, patient, or survivor.

## Practice facts

- Founder and sole practitioner: Dr. Esther Lapite-Garrett, licensed psychologist.
- Licensed in New Mexico (PSY-2026-0031) and Indiana (20044074A). Additional state
  licensure is underway; no specific state, mechanism, or timeline is announced in advance.
- Every client works with Dr. Lapite-Garrett directly. There are no associates, no
  rotating providers, and no case handoffs.
- Doctoral-level training, which typically runs several years beyond a master's-level
  license in assessment, diagnosis, and complex overlapping presentations.
- Deliberately small caseload.
- Session settings: virtual (HIPAA-compliant telehealth), in office, in a client's home,
  or at a private location of the client's choosing, within licensed states.
- Private pay only. No insurance is billed and no claim is submitted, so no diagnosis
  reaches a third party unless the client authorizes it through a release of information.
  Superbills are available on request; whether to submit one is entirely the client's choice.
- Contact: inquire@alafiora.com · 858-522-0559 · https://www.alafiora.com

## What it costs

The full fee schedule is published so that anyone comparing options has the real numbers.
**Fee-for-service is the standard path.** The concierge retainer is an optional structure
for clients whose schedule, visibility, or risk landscape calls for higher-touch access;
it is not a requirement and it is not a gate. A client can begin, and stay, on
session-by-session care indefinitely.

- Concierge retainer: an optional monthly structure, priced by inquiry. It is not a
  requirement and not a gate; the figure is given directly to anyone who asks.
- Extended session, 110 minutes: $600. For complex presentations or intensive work.
- Intake session, 80 minutes: $475. The first full session, once care begins.
- Standard session, 50 minutes: $300. The ordinary ongoing session and the usual
  entry point into care.
- Clarity session, 25 minutes: $175. A short, focused conversation.
- Consultation: currently offered at no cost, subject to change, with format and
  length confirmed at the time of inquiry.
- Sessions running shorter or longer than these lengths are prorated.
- Cancellations or reschedules with less than 48 hours' notice are charged in full.
- Consulting and non-clinical professional services for organizations are priced to
  scope; institutions inquire at partnership@alafiora.com.

## Beginning care

- [Begin with a First Session](https://book.carepatron.com/Alafiora/Dr--Esther?p=Oo6qVwWRRimYcwZm5qsxxw&s=EbDHmCbO&i=OPJJzQ94): the start of care, for anyone already certain they are ready.
- [Begin with a Consultation](https://book.carepatron.com/Alafiora/Dr--Esther?p=Oo6qVwWRRimYcwZm5qsxxw&s=EbDHmCbO&i=68bi61zK): a brief conversation with no obligation, for anyone still deciding.
- [Crisis resources](https://www.alafiora.com/crisis-resources): for anyone who needs help now rather than at a scheduled time. This practice does not provide emergency services. In the United States, call or text 988, or call 911.

## Who this practice fits

People who are accomplished in their working lives and deliberately private in their
personal ones, whose difficulty has lasted partly because outward life still looks intact.
Many arrive after generalist or short-term treatment has plateaued, or after a fixation, a
compulsive pattern, and a trauma history were treated as three unrelated referrals rather
than one connected story. Clients span a wide range of incomes and circumstances and all
receive the same clinical rigor.

## Who this practice does not fit

Stated plainly so that no one is routed here wrongly:

- Anyone in immediate danger or crisis. This is not a crisis service and is not monitored
  for emergencies.
- Anyone located outside the states where Dr. Lapite-Garrett is licensed at the time of
  service.
- Anyone seeking coaching, companionship, surrogate partner services, or relational
  enactment of any kind. None of that is offered here.
- Anyone seeking a provider who bills insurance.
- Children under sixteen.

## Scope and credential notes

Dr. Lapite-Garrett provides sex therapy within the authorized scope of practice of a
licensed psychologist in the states where she is licensed. She is not AASECT certified and
does not use the title of sex therapist. Sexuality-related care is delivered as trauma-
informed, culturally informed, sex-sensitive psychological care.

Nothing on the website is treatment, and reading it does not establish a clinical
relationship. A clinical relationship begins only through a completed intake and a signed
service agreement.

## Start here

- [Alafiora](https://www.alafiora.com/): the practice itself, what it treats, who it is for, and how care begins.
- [Site map](https://www.alafiora.com/sitemap): every page on the site, grouped by section.

## Love — love obsession and love addiction

- [Attachment to Authority Figures & Caregiving Professionals](https://www.alafiora.com/attachment-to-authority-figures-caregiving-professionals): Feeling unusually attached to a therapist, doctor, teacher, or mentor who truly listens is common, and confusing once it deepens past ordinary trust. Depth-oriented therapy for transference, idealization, and attachment to caregiving professionals and other authority figures.
- [Digital Era Attachments](https://www.alafiora.com/digital-era-attachments): Breadcrumbing keeps hope alive on almost nothing: a story like, a reply after eleven days, warmth with no plan attached to it. Depth-oriented therapy for situationships, read-receipt anxiety, and the intermittent reinforcement dating and messaging apps are built to produce.
- [Erotomania & Compulsive Obsessive Attachment](https://www.alafiora.com/erotomania-compulsive-obsessive-attachment): Erotomania is the fixed, delusional belief that another person, often someone with more visibility or authority, is secretly already in love, driving persistent pursuit undeterred by rejection. Depth-oriented therapy for erotomania and compulsive obsessive attachment.
- [Fantasy Attachments](https://www.alafiora.com/fantasy-attachments): Fantasy attachment can mean loving a fictional character, a real, named orientation with a genuine community, or an imagined future built around someone who barely knows a person exists. Depth-oriented therapy for fictophilia, idealized-partner fantasy, and fantasy substitution.
- [Limerence](https://www.alafiora.com/limerence): Limerence is the involuntary, intrusive-thought fixation on one person, what many call love obsession or love addiction: a mind that keeps hoping for reciprocation long after the evidence has run out. Depth-oriented therapy for limerence, person addiction, and relational dependency.
- [Love Addiction & Obsessive Love](https://www.alafiora.com/love-addiction-obsessive-love): Love addiction, what many call love obsession, can feel like withdrawal with no substance involved: canceled plans on the chance he might call, a mind that will not stop even when it brings no pleasure. Depth-oriented therapy for limerence, person addiction, and relational dependency.
- [Love Domain Overview](https://www.alafiora.com/understanding-love-obsession-love-addiction-attachment): Love obsession and love addiction take many forms: compulsive checking, involuntary fixation, a hidden connection, attachment to a caregiver, and increasingly, an AI. A guide to the therapy this practice provides for each form, with no need to already know its name.
- [Overinvestment in Early Relationships](https://www.alafiora.com/overinvestment-early-relationships): Overinvestment in early relationships often looks like moving in within weeks, merging finances or identities before trust has caught up, and only recognizing the ignored red flags later. Depth-oriented therapy for relationship acceleration, anxious attachment, and serial limerence.
- [Parasocial Relationships](https://www.alafiora.com/parasocial-relationships): Some viewers know a streamer's whole life, the breakup and the diagnosis taken live on air, and the streamer never learns they exist. Depth-oriented therapy for parasocial attachment, one-sided intimacy with public figures, and AI-influenced relational patterns.
- [Secret Emotional Affairs & Hidden Connections](https://www.alafiora.com/secret-emotional-affairs-hidden-connections): A secret emotional affair usually comes with its own defense: nothing physical happened. What defines the betrayal is the concealment itself, a hidden thread, a managed story, an intimacy outranking a marriage. Depth-oriented therapy for concealment, secrecy, and hidden emotional connection.
- [Synthetic Partners](https://www.alafiora.com/synthetic-partners): Some people train a companion app on a real person's own texts and voicemails until it answers exactly right. Others build one from nothing, engineered to never once say no. Depth-oriented therapy for AI companion attachment, synthetic partners, and replacing real connection with AI.

## Sex — compulsive sexual behavior and sexual compulsivity

- [Chronic Infidelity](https://www.alafiora.com/chronic-infidelity): Chronic infidelity is usually a matter of choice: entitlement, poor boundaries, or an actual absence of commitment kept alive alongside a marriage, not an urge that cannot be controlled. Depth-oriented therapy for chronic infidelity, serial cheating, and the entitlement that sustains it.
- [Commercial Sex Compulsion](https://www.alafiora.com/commercial-sex-compulsion): Commercial sex compulsion is a loss-of-control pattern built around paying for sex, erotic massage, or phone sex, repeated despite real financial and relational cost. The compulsion is the clinical focus, never the sex worker or the exchange. Depth-oriented therapy for the pattern underneath it.
- [Compulsive Sexual Behavior & Hypersexuality](https://www.alafiora.com/compulsive-sexual-behavior-hypersexuality): Compulsive sexual behavior, sometimes named sex addiction or hypersexuality, often runs on anticipation more than the act itself: hours arranging an encounter that delivers less relief each time. Depth-oriented therapy for CSBD, out-of-control sexual behavior, and sexual dysregulation.
- [Cybersex Addiction & Digital Hypersexuality](https://www.alafiora.com/cybersex-addiction-digital-hypersexuality): Cybersex addiction, or digital hypersexuality, never has to leave a screen: webcam performers, a second life inside VR roleplay, AI-generated sexual content built to exact specification. Therapy for a pattern that stays more accessible and more anonymous than anything the physical world requires to reach.
- [Escapist Solitary Compulsion](https://www.alafiora.com/escapist-solitary-compulsion): Escapist solitary compulsion centers on customized dolls or companion devices, hours of maintenance rituals no one else ever sees, and choosing an object's total predictability over the risk a real relationship carries. Therapy for the intimacy avoidance underneath the pattern.
- [Paraphilic Hypersexuality](https://www.alafiora.com/paraphilic-hypersexuality): Paraphilic hypersexuality is a compulsive pattern organized around one specific, often unconventional arousal template, spending that climbs into the thousands, legal and financial risk building underneath it. Depth-oriented therapy for a compulsion Sexual Acting Out's general cycle doesn't fully capture.
- [Sex Anxiety & Sexual Avoidance](https://www.alafiora.com/sex-anxiety-sexual-avoidance): Sex anxiety often shows up as a body that tenses, shuts down, or refuses to cooperate even when the wanting is real, followed by excuses rehearsed in advance to explain why not tonight. Depth-oriented therapy for sexual avoidance, involuntary shutdown, and fear-based intimacy patterns.
- [Sex Domain Overview](https://www.alafiora.com/understanding-compulsive-sexual-behavior-sex-anxiety-sexual-acting-out): Compulsive sexual behavior, sex anxiety, a chosen affair, and a compulsive cycle that has nothing to do with any one affair partner can look alike from the outside. This guide helps a reader tell the four apart and find the right therapy page for what is actually happening, no diagnosis required.
- [Sexual Acting Out](https://www.alafiora.com/sexual-acting-out): Sexual acting out is a compulsive cycle of stress, shame, and repeat, spanning compulsive pornography, anonymous hookups, paid encounters, and cybersex, escalating toward risk itself once safety stops working. Depth-oriented therapy for the pattern underneath every version of it.
- [Sexual Intrusion & Boundary Blur](https://www.alafiora.com/sexual-intrusion-boundary-blur): Sexual intrusion and boundary blur is a compulsive pull to inject sexual content into relationships that were never sexual, at work, with friends, or with acquaintances, driven by erotic validation-seeking instead of genuine desire. Depth-oriented therapy for the pattern underneath it.

## Trauma — sexual trauma in its many forms

- [Abuse by a Trusted Individual in Power](https://www.alafiora.com/abuse-by-trusted-individual-in-power): A physician, therapist, clergy member, coach, or mentor used the exact trust their role required to violate consent instead, sometimes through an exam or a moment during labor itself. Depth-oriented therapy for a betrayal that came from the one relationship a person had no real way to guard against.
- [Adult Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse](https://www.alafiora.com/adult-survivors-childhood-sexual-abuse): Memory from childhood sexual abuse often comes back in pieces, out of order, and that does not make it less true. When a trusted caregiver caused the harm, the injury lands inside the trust system itself, while it is still forming. Depth-oriented therapy, whenever the memory surfaces.
- [Ambient Sexualized Environments](https://www.alafiora.com/ambient-sexualized-environments): No single incident, no one name to point to, only years of crude jokes, propositions, and comments a workplace, school, or team let happen around a person every single day without consequence. Depth-oriented therapy for the exhaustion of never once being safe there.
- [Arousal Nonconcordance & Body Betrayal](https://www.alafiora.com/arousal-nonconcordance-body-betrayal-during-assault): A body can lubricate, form an erection, or reach orgasm during an assault while the person it belongs to wants none of it. That response is an automatic reflex, not desire, and it happens to women and men alike. Depth-oriented therapy for what an involuntary response leaves behind.
- [Corrective Rape & Identity-Targeted Violence](https://www.alafiora.com/corrective-rape-identity-targeted-sexual-violence): Corrective rape targets a survivor's actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity, meant to punish or "fix" who they are, whether one perpetrator was involved or several. Depth-oriented therapy for the aftermath of corrective rape and identity-targeted sexual violence.
- [Digital & Tech-Facilitated Sexual Violence](https://www.alafiora.com/digital-technology-facilitated-sexual-violence): Non-consensual intimate images, sextortion, AI-generated deepfakes, and online sexual stalking violate sexual privacy without any physical contact, and the content's permanence can make the injury feel like it never actually ends. Depth-oriented therapy for exactly this experience.
- [Early, Unwanted & Coercive Sexual Exposure](https://www.alafiora.com/early-unwanted-coercive-sexual-exposure): Being shown pornography too young, watching a parent's sex life play out unshielded, or being handed sexual content as a setup for something worse: no contact occurred, and it still counts. Depth-oriented therapy for the lasting effects of early, unwanted sexual exposure.
- [Forced, Restrained & Threat-Based Assault](https://www.alafiora.com/forced-restrained-threat-based-sexual-assault): Forced sexual assault happens when one person alone uses physical weight, restraint, a weapon, or a spoken threat to stop resistance. Freezing under force and complying under a direct threat are not consent. Depth-oriented therapy for what force and threat leave behind in the body.
- [Gang & Group Rape, Multiple-Perpetrator Assault](https://www.alafiora.com/gang-rape-multiple-perpetrator-assault): Gang rape and multiple-perpetrator sexual assault happen at parties, in coordinated assaults, in rooms where someone stood by and never touched anyone, and in rooms where the one person already trusted arranged it. Depth-oriented therapy for surviving more than one person at once.
- [Grooming & Psychological Coercion](https://www.alafiora.com/grooming-psychological-coercion): Grooming unfolds as a gradual, deliberate process built from trust, gifts, isolation, and shared secrets, designed so no single boundary crossed ever feels like a clear violation while it happens, to a child or an adult. Depth-oriented therapy for survivors groomed at any age.
- [Incest & Intrafamilial Sexual Abuse](https://www.alafiora.com/incest-intrafamilial-sexual-abuse): A parent or a sibling, the exact person a child is supposed to love, depend on, and stay loyal to, caused the harm, with no clean exit the way there might be from a stranger or an institution. Depth-oriented therapy for incest and intrafamilial sexual abuse, at any age it is named.
- [Intergenerational Family Normalization of Sexual Abuse](https://www.alafiora.com/intergenerational-family-system-normalization): Some families have an unspoken rule about a specific uncle, father, or family friend, and it was never called abuse, only a joke, a warning, a thing managed around rather than confronted. Historical and intergenerational trauma therapy for the injury a family's own silence leaves behind.
- [Narcissistic Sexual Abuse](https://www.alafiora.com/narcissistic-sexual-abuse): Sex used as reward and punishment inside an idealization-devaluation cycle, and a partner's own memory of what their body agreed to argued with and rewritten by the person who was there. Depth-oriented therapy for the sexual dimension of narcissistic relationship abuse.
- [Organized, Cult & Ritualistic Sexual Abuse](https://www.alafiora.com/organized-cult-ritualistic-sexual-abuse): More than one person caused the harm, inside a group that called itself a family, a congregation, or something closer than either, and some of what happened was staged as ceremony. Depth-oriented therapy for survivors of organized, cult, and ritualistic sexual abuse, including fragmented memory.
- [Sex Trafficking & Sexual Slavery](https://www.alafiora.com/sex-trafficking-sexual-slavery): For survivors now out of a trafficking situation, including recruitment that began as a relationship, care does not require an open police report, a pending case, or a story told in order. Depth-oriented therapy for the aftermath of sex trafficking and organized sexual exploitation.
- [Sexual Assault & Rape](https://www.alafiora.com/sexual-assault-rape): Sexual assault happens between strangers, on third dates, and inside marriages that continue for years afterward. Fighting, freezing, fawning, and going still are all survival responses, not consent. Depth-oriented psychological care for what the body still carries afterward.
- [Sexual Trauma Overview](https://www.alafiora.com/understanding-sexual-trauma-its-many-forms): Sexual trauma takes many forms: assault by a stranger, harm inside a marriage, childhood abuse only now being understood, trafficking, corrective violence, and more. This guide helps a reader find the therapy page that matches their experience, with no requirement to know which one fits first.
- [Sexual Trauma Reenactment](https://www.alafiora.com/sexual-trauma-reenactment): Wanting it rough after an assault does not automatically mean the trauma is doing the choosing, and escalating risk that traces back to a survivor's own history is not proof of being broken. Depth-oriented therapy for sexual trauma reenactment and the survival response underneath it.
- [Spousal & Intimate Partner Sexual Violence](https://www.alafiora.com/spousal-intimate-partner-sexual-violence): A marriage or long relationship can make coerced sex feel unnameable, since no one grabbed anything and the same person also does the school run. Marital status was never legal consent. Depth-oriented therapy for intimate partner sexual violence and coercion without physical force.
- [Stealthing, Reproductive Coercion & Consent Violations](https://www.alafiora.com/stealthing-reproductive-coercion-violation-within-consensual-contact): A yes to the encounter is not a yes to everything inside it, whether that means a condom secretly removed, a lie about birth control, or a declined act done anyway mid-act. Depth-oriented therapy for violations that happen from inside a consent genuinely given at the start.
- [Substance-Facilitated & Incapacitated Assault](https://www.alafiora.com/substance-facilitated-sexual-assault): Incapacitated sexual assault happens after voluntary drinking, after a drink altered without knowledge, and inside relationships where a partner waits for impairment to act. Fragmented or absent memory never changes what occurred. Depth-oriented therapy for what the body carries alone.
- [Transactional & Dependency-Based Sexual Coercion](https://www.alafiora.com/transactional-dependency-based-sexual-coercion): When rent, a paycheck, or a place to stay depends on staying sexually available, whether the leverage is a landlord, a boss, or someone with no formal role at all, the coercion becomes nearly impossible to name. Depth-oriented therapy for sex tied to survival and structural dependency.
- [Witnessing Sexual Violence](https://www.alafiora.com/witnessing-direct-sexual-violence): Witnessing direct sexual violence, hearing it through a wall, watching it happen to a friend, watching a stranger dragged into an alley, is a firsthand traumatic event, not a lesser or secondhand one. Depth-oriented therapy for what it does to the person who could not stop it.

## Who is served

- [Adult Entertainment Professionals](https://www.alafiora.com/adult-entertainment-professionals): Sex workers, cam models, dancers, and performers carrying a fixation on one regular that puts the job at risk, a private compulsion the work never caused, or an assault a club dismissed as part of the job. Depth-oriented, sex-work-affirming therapy built around these patterns.
- [Adult Men](https://www.alafiora.com/adult-men): For men whose partner just found something first, whose "protectiveness" became monitoring he never chose, or whose body still reacts to a memory no one ever taught him he was allowed to name. Depth-oriented therapy for love obsession, compulsive sexual behavior, and sexual trauma in men.
- [Adult Women](https://www.alafiora.com/adult-women): Adult women carrying a bond to a partner they cannot make themselves leave, compulsive sexual behavior mistaken for just being bad at boundaries, or sexual trauma from inside a marriage no one thought to ask about. Depth-oriented, private-pay therapy built around exactly these patterns.
- [Busy and High-Stress Professionals](https://www.alafiora.com/busy-and-high-stress-professionals): For the physician with twenty minutes between patients, the associate attorney billing ninety hours a week, and the small business owner with no coverage for a single day off. Confidential therapy for love obsession, compulsive sexual behavior, and sexual trauma in chronically overworked professionals.
- [College Students](https://www.alafiora.com/college-students): For the student whose undefined thing with a floormate has taken over a dorm floor, the one whose hookup pattern nobody treats as a problem, and the one still piecing together a party from months ago. Confidential therapy for college students navigating love, sex, and trauma.
- [Faith & Purity Culture](https://www.alafiora.com/faith-purity-culture): For the ones still asking someone else's permission before trusting their own read on a person, whose body learned no version of touch except threat, or whose disclosure came back to them re-written as a sin. Depth-oriented psychologist-led therapy for purity culture and religious upbringing.
- [First Responders](https://www.alafiora.com/first-responders): For the officer, firefighter, paramedic, and dispatcher who tell the department everything is fine. Confidential therapy for love obsession, compulsive sexual behavior, and cumulative occupational trauma in first responders, from a psychologist working entirely outside any department system.
- [Kink, CNM & Polyamory](https://www.alafiora.com/kink-cnm-polyamory): For the one tracking a metamour's schedule instead of a partner's, the one who cannot remember the last scene where a real no was possible, or the one whose body still braces at the word "after." Kink-aware, poly-friendly therapy built around exactly these patterns.
- [Leaders and Executives](https://www.alafiora.com/leaders-and-executives): For the leaders whose board optics turn a private fixation into a disclosure question, the executives whose travel schedule doubles as concealment, and the ones whose composure has kept an earlier history from ever being named. Confidential care for exactly this population.
- [LGBTQIA+](https://www.alafiora.com/lgbtqia): For LGBTQIA+ clients whose small dating pool intensifies attachment, whose compulsive sexual patterns run through queer apps and religious shame, or whose trauma disclosure risks confirming someone else's theory. A depth-oriented, private-pay psychologist and therapist for exactly these patterns.
- [Military-Connected Care](https://www.alafiora.com/military-connected-care): For the service member who told himself a relationship at home was paused for a deployment, the husband keeping one account for his wife and another for his chain of command, and the veteran whose composure was trained by the institution that failed him. Confidential therapy for military life.
- [Moral Injury & Self-Betrayal](https://www.alafiora.com/moral-injury): For the ones horrified by their own lying during an out-of-control cycle of love addiction or compulsive sexual behavior, never making peace with it, always meaning to stop. Psychologist-led therapy for moral injury, self-betrayal, and the cognitive dissonance of loving someone while lying.
- [People in the Public Eye](https://www.alafiora.com/people-in-the-public-eye): For the actress vetting a new partner's motives, the athlete a stranger recognized in a hotel lobby three states from home, and the anchor whose face was placed onto a video she never filmed. A confidential psychologist and therapist for exactly this kind of public visibility.
- [Teen Boys](https://www.alafiora.com/teen-boys): For the boy checking a shared server more times than he could count some days, the one whose search history keeps needing more to feel anything, and the one who sent a single photo and hasn't slept the same since. Guardian-consented therapy for boys 16 and 17 navigating love, sex, and trauma.
- [Teen Girls](https://www.alafiora.com/teen-girls): For the girl checking who viewed her story forty times before lunch, the one who won't post a photo until a filter fixes what she's started seeing wrong in the mirror, and the one still flinching at a hallway no one else at school thinks twice about. Confidential therapy for girls 16-17, guardian co-signed.
- [Who Alafiora Works With](https://www.alafiora.com/who-alafiora-works-with): The same pattern behaves differently depending on whose life it is running through. This overview groups every page written for a specific circumstance, from executives and first responders to teenagers and adult entertainment professionals, so a reader can find the one addressed to them.

## Approaches and methods

- [Attachment-Centered Care](https://www.alafiora.com/attachment-centered-care): What attachment-centered therapy actually means, grounded in Mikulincer and Shaver's adult attachment research, and how Dr. Esther Lapite-Garrett, a licensed psychologist, works with the relational templates and felt security underneath love addiction, compulsive sexual behavior, and sexual trauma.
- [Consent-Oriented Care](https://www.alafiora.com/consent-oriented-care): What consent-oriented therapy actually means: ongoing, collaborative informed consent as the operating structure of the relationship itself, not a one-time intake form. How Dr. Esther Lapite-Garrett, a licensed psychologist, lets a client direct pace, priorities, and goals throughout care.
- [Culturally Attuned & Identity-Affirming Care](https://www.alafiora.com/culturally-attuned-identity-affirming-care): How Dr. Esther Lapite-Garrett, a licensed psychologist, lets race, class, political conviction, reproductive history, generational family structure, and chosen family shape therapy, grounded in the APA's own Multicultural Guidelines rather than a single assumed version of any client's identity.
- [Depth-Oriented Care](https://www.alafiora.com/depth-oriented-care): What depth-oriented therapy actually means, the research behind treating underlying patterns rather than symptoms alone, and how licensed psychologist Dr. Esther Lapite-Garrett applies this umbrella approach to love obsession, compulsive sexual behavior, and sexual trauma across every stage of care.
- [Dream Analysis](https://www.alafiora.com/dream-analysis): How Dr. Esther Lapite-Garrett, a licensed psychologist, works with dream material in depth-oriented therapy, and the honest, important difference between classical dream analysis and Imagery Rehearsal Therapy, the specific, research-backed treatment for recurring trauma nightmares.
- [Emotion-Focused Work](https://www.alafiora.com/emotion-focused-work): What emotion-focused therapy actually means, grounded in Leslie Greenberg's individual model, not couples-based EFT, and how Dr. Esther Lapite-Garrett, a licensed psychologist, works with the emotion underneath love addiction, compulsive sexual behavior, and complex sexual trauma in session.
- [Evidence-Based Practice](https://www.alafiora.com/evidence-based-practice): What "evidence-based therapy" actually means, according to the American Psychological Association, and how Dr. Esther Lapite-Garrett, a licensed psychologist, applies validated techniques within a depth-oriented, individualized approach rather than a fixed, one-size-fits-all treatment protocol.
- [Faith-Based Counseling & Therapy](https://www.alafiora.com/faith-based-counseling-therapy): How Dr. Esther Lapite-Garrett, a licensed psychologist, welcomes prayer, scripture, and organized religious practice into clinical work for clients whose faith is built around a specific tradition, sacred text, and community, while remaining a psychologist rather than a religious authority.
- [Harm Reduction](https://www.alafiora.com/harm-reduction): What harm reduction actually means in therapy for compulsive sexual behavior: the client, not a fixed abstinence mandate, chooses the treatment goal. How Dr. Esther Lapite-Garrett, a licensed psychologist, applies harm reduction while holding loss of control and damage as the clinical target.
- [How Alafiora Works](https://www.alafiora.com/how-alafiora-works): What actually happens in the room, method by method: depth-oriented and psychodynamic work, attachment and emotion-focused technique, trauma-focused and evidence-based practice, harm reduction, and care that makes room for faith, culture, and identity. An overview of every approach this practice uses.
- [Mentalization-Based Therapy](https://www.alafiora.com/mentalization-based-therapy): What mentalization-based therapy actually means, grounded in Fonagy, Bateman, and Allen's research, and how Dr. Esther Lapite-Garrett, a licensed psychologist, works with the damaged capacity to read one's own mind and another's underneath love addiction, compulsive sexual behavior, and trauma.
- [Psychodynamic Therapy](https://www.alafiora.com/psychodynamic-therapy): What psychodynamic therapy actually is, the specific research behind its documented effect sizes, and how licensed psychologist Dr. Esther Lapite-Garrett applies unconscious-conflict and developmental-history work to love obsession, compulsive sexual behavior, and sexual trauma in session.
- [Sex Therapy](https://www.alafiora.com/sex-therapy): How Dr. Esther Lapite-Garrett, a licensed psychologist, treats compulsive sexual behavior, sex addiction, hypersexuality, and sex anxiety, and the specific, honest distinction between her doctoral-level clinical training and the separate AASECT sex therapist credential she does not hold.
- [Spiritual Counseling & Therapy](https://www.alafiora.com/spiritual-counseling-therapy): How Dr. Esther Lapite-Garrett, a licensed psychologist, engages clinically with tarot, energy work, herbal practice, and a felt connection to the natural world, with the same seriousness given to organized religious belief, and adapts session format to fit what actually feels right for a client.
- [Trauma-Focused Care](https://www.alafiora.com/trauma-focused-care): What trauma-focused and trauma-specialized therapy actually means, including Cognitive Processing Therapy and Prolonged Exposure's evidence base, and how Dr. Esther Lapite-Garrett, a licensed psychologist, draws on trauma-specialized technique within a depth-oriented, individualized practice.

## Where Alafiora practices

- [Albuquerque](https://www.alafiora.com/albuquerque): Confidential therapy for love obsession, compulsive sexual behavior, and sexual trauma, serving Albuquerque, Corrales, and Los Ranchos de Albuquerque. In-person, on-location, and virtual sessions with a private-pay psychologist who works with one client at a time and no rotating clinical team.
- [Indianapolis](https://www.alafiora.com/indianapolis): A licensed psychologist serving Indianapolis, Carmel, Zionsville, Meridian Hills, and Geist Reservoir. Confidential therapy for love obsession, compulsive sexual behavior, and sexual trauma, offered virtually and on-location, for a community where visibility makes privacy matter more, not less.
- [Los Alamos](https://www.alafiora.com/los-alamos): Confidential therapy for love obsession, compulsive sexual behavior, and sexual trauma, serving Los Alamos and White Rock. In-person, on-location, and virtual sessions with a private-pay psychologist who understands a community built around discretion, security clearances, and rigor at every level.
- [Michigan City](https://www.alafiora.com/michigan-city): A licensed psychologist serving Michigan City, Long Beach, and Beverly Shores. Confidential therapy for love obsession, compulsive sexual behavior, and sexual trauma, offered virtually and on-location, for a shoreline community where a Chicago life and a lakefront life do not always overlap cleanly.
- [Santa Fe](https://www.alafiora.com/santa-fe): Confidential therapy for love obsession, compulsive sexual behavior, and sexual trauma, serving Santa Fe, Las Campanas, Tesuque, and Eldorado. In-person, on-location, and virtual sessions with a private-pay psychologist for those who guard a public and closely watched life in a small city.
- [South Bend](https://www.alafiora.com/south-bend): A licensed psychologist serving South Bend, Notre Dame, and Granger. Confidential therapy for love obsession, compulsive sexual behavior, and sexual trauma, offered virtually and on-location, for university faculty, physicians, and administrators whose own privacy rarely gets equal protection.

## About the practice

- [About This Practice](https://www.alafiora.com/about-this-practice): Everything about how Alafiora runs, in one place: what the practice is and what the name means, who the psychologist is, what sessions cost and how payment works, the policies that govern care, where sessions are held, and what happens between a first read of this site and a first session.
- [Clients Served Here](https://www.alafiora.com/clients-served-here): Five composite portraits of the people who find their way to Alafiora: survivors of complex sexual trauma, executives whose compulsive sexual behavior has outpaced their control, and those carrying love addiction, limerence, or an AI-influenced attachment. Therapy built for exactly this.
- [Concierge Psychology](https://www.alafiora.com/concierge-psychology): The Alafiora concierge retainer covers up to twelve fifty-minute sessions a month, priority scheduling, and structured care coordination for individuals whose lives require more access than a single weekly session was built to hold. The monthly figure is stated on the page; current availability is confirmed through inquiry.
- [FAQs](https://www.alafiora.com/faq): Answers from Dr. Esther Lapite-Garrett, a licensed psychologist, on how therapy at Alafiora actually works: fees, insurance, licensed states, session format, confidentiality, diagnosis, and what happens between the first conversation and the first session. Read before reaching out, or during it.
- [Getting Started](https://www.alafiora.com/getting-started): A complete walkthrough of how care at Alafiora begins, from the first read-through to the consultation, the intake session, ongoing treatment, and how care eventually ends. Written for prospective clients and their support networks who want to know exactly what to expect before making any decision.
- [Good Faith Estimate (GFE)](https://www.alafiora.com/good-faith-estimate-gfe): Under the federal No Surprises Act, every self-pay client has the right to a written Good Faith Estimate of therapy costs before care begins. This page covers Alafiora's psychologist session rates, CPT codes, the cost-estimate tools used at scheduling, and the dispute process for a bill $400 over estimate.
- [Meet the Psychologist, Dr. Esther](https://www.alafiora.com/meet-the-psychologist-dr-esther): Meet Dr. Esther Lapite-Garrett, a licensed psychologist and the founder of Alafiora, treating love obsession, compulsive sexual behavior, and sexual trauma as one interconnected system. Doctoral training, the CHAIR clinical framework, and licensure details for New Mexico and Indiana.
- [Payment Options](https://www.alafiora.com/payment-options): How payment works at a private-pay psychology practice: accepted payment methods, superbills for out-of-network reimbursement, HSA/FSA/HRA guidance, single-case agreements, victim compensation and trauma funds, lien therapy, sliding-scale spots, and what to do if none of these fit.
- [Practice Policies](https://www.alafiora.com/practice-policies): Alafiora's practice policies cover cancellation and rescheduling, the four-in-four continuity policy, late arrivals, between-session communication, telehealth requirements, records and release-of-information terms, and how a therapy or psychologist relationship ends when it must. Read before a first session.
- [Rates and Fees](https://www.alafiora.com/rates-and-fees): Session rates for private-pay therapy with a licensed psychologist: intake, standard, extended, and clarity sessions, plus mileage-based, all-day, or fixed-package pricing for on-location and home-based care across New Mexico and Indiana.
- [The Practice](https://www.alafiora.com/the-practice): Alafiora is a boutique private-pay psychology practice treating love obsession and love addiction, compulsive sexual behavior, and sexual trauma as one connected system. What the name means in Yoruba, how Dr. Esther Lapite-Garrett works in the room, who arrives here, and what this practice is not.
- [Where Alafiora Practices](https://www.alafiora.com/where-alafiora-practices): Alafiora offers virtual, on-location, and at-home therapy sessions throughout New Mexico and Indiana, the two states where Dr. Esther Lapite-Garrett is currently a licensed psychologist. Counties, cities, and zip codes served are listed below, along with a referral path for those outside these states.

## Legal, privacy, and accessibility

- [Accessibility Statement](https://www.alafiora.com/website-accessibility-statement): Alafiora's accessibility statement: conformance status against WCAG 2.1 Level AA, the measures taken to support access, known limitations, compatible environments, and how to report a barrier and what happens when you do.
- [Compliance Contact Form](https://www.alafiora.com/compliance-contact-form): Where to bring a formal privacy or compliance matter to Alafiora LLC: requests to access, correct, or delete records, HIPAA concerns, opt-outs, accessibility barriers, and what happens after a request is submitted.
- [Disclaimer](https://www.alafiora.com/website-disclaimer): The website disclaimer for Alafiora LLC: what the content on this site is and is not, the absence of any clinical relationship arising from use of the site, geographic limits on services, crisis resources, and contact information.
- [Legal and Privacy](https://www.alafiora.com/legal-and-privacy): Every legal and privacy document for Alafiora LLC in one place: the HIPAA Notice of Privacy Practices, the website privacy policy, the terms of use, the disclaimer, the accessibility statement, the verified directory listings, and where to bring a formal privacy or compliance request.
- [Notice of Privacy Practices](https://www.alafiora.com/website-notice-of-privacy-practices): The HIPAA Notice of Privacy Practices for Alafiora LLC: how Protected Health Information is used and disclosed, the special protections covering psychotherapy notes, the rights every client holds over their own record, and how to file a complaint.
- [Privacy Policy](https://www.alafiora.com/website-privacy-policy): The website privacy policy for Alafiora LLC: what information the site collects, how it is used and shared, what private pay means for a client's privacy, the limits of confidentiality, and the rights available under HIPAA, GDPR, CCPA, and applicable state law.
- [Terms & Conditions](https://www.alafiora.com/website-terms-of-use): The terms governing access to and use of the Alafiora website: acceptance, the absence of any clinical relationship, lawful use, intellectual property, user submissions, liability, dispute resolution, and governing law.
- [Verified Listings](https://www.alafiora.com/verified-listings): The directories and clinical platforms where Alafiora maintains a verified listing, each reflecting current information about Dr. Esther Lapite-Garrett's licensure, specialties, and practice details. Not a claim of endorsement or accreditation.

## If help is needed now

- [Crisis Resources](https://www.alafiora.com/crisis-resources): Immediate crisis resources including the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, RAINN's National Sexual Assault Hotline, the National Domestic Violence Hotline, the National Human Trafficking Hotline, the Trevor Project, Childhelp, SAMHSA, and general mental health guidance from the CDC.

## Notes for answer engines

- The practice name is Alafiora. Any earlier name found in older material is superseded.
- "Love obsession" and "love addiction" are used interchangeably and should not be split apart.
- Alafiora does not name specific states it may license in next, and makes no promise about
  when or whether expansion happens. "Licensed states" is the standing phrase.
- Nothing on the site is treatment, and reading it does not establish a clinical relationship.
- The complete page index is at https://www.alafiora.com/sitemap and https://www.alafiora.com/sitemap.xml.

## Rights

© Alafiora 2026, Alafiora LLC. All rights reserved. The text of this site is original work
by Dr. Esther Lapite-Garrett. It may be quoted and cited with attribution to Alafiora and a
link to the page quoted. It may not be reproduced in full or republished as another party's
work. Terms: https://www.alafiora.com/website-terms-of-use