About Andreea Brabete
Understanding yourself more deeply can be the beginning of meaningful change.
Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying), PhD, Researcher
Toronto, Ontario | English • Español • Română
How I Got Here
From psychology and research to psychoanalytic psychotherapy
My interest in the inner world and what gives rise to human suffering began in adolescence.
That interest developed through academic, clinical, and personal experiences before eventually leading me toward psychotherapy with a psychoanalytic orientation.
During the final years of my psychology degree, I encountered psychoanalysis directly through my own analysis. This experience changed how I understood psychological life and deepened my interest in the ways our experiences, relationships, and histories shape who we become.
I studied Psychology at the Complutense University of Madrid and later completed a PhD in Women’s Health at the same institution. My research explored how migration, acculturation, and questions of femininity and masculinity shape identity, gender, and well-being.
Over the years, my research has also examined women’s mental and physical health, intimate partner violence, substance use, addiction, trauma, sex, gender, and sexual orientation.
This work left me increasingly interested in a question that research alone could not fully answer: how do we understand the individual experience behind the patterns we can observe?
That question became part of what drew me toward one-on-one clinical work. My transition into psychotherapy was shaped both by my research and by my own psychoanalytic exploration.
A life across countries
My personal and professional journey has also taken me across Romania, Spain, Italy, Germany, and Canada.
Living between different countries and cultural contexts has influenced the way I think about identity, belonging, migration, and transition. These experiences continue to inform both my research and my clinical work.
Who I Work With
Therapy for different experiences, backgrounds, and stages of life
I work with people from diverse cultural and personal backgrounds who are navigating emotional, relational, and life challenges.
My experience includes working with:
- Adolescents and young adults
- Adults and older adults
- International college and university students
- Academics and professionals
- Immigrants, newcomers, and people navigating migration
- Refugees
- BIPOC communities
- Members of the 2SLGBTQ+ community
I also work with people exploring questions around identity, belonging, relationships, cultural adjustment, and major transitions in their lives.
Whether you are dealing with a specific difficulty or trying to understand patterns that have been present for much longer, therapy can provide an opportunity to explore your experience in greater depth.
Whatever brings you here, therapy offers a space to slow down, reflect, and explore what lies beneath the surface.
Together, we can work toward greater insight, lasting change, and a way of relating to yourself and others that feels more authentic and meaningful.
My Approach
Understanding your experience, rather than fitting it into a formula
I believe psychotherapy offers an opportunity to understand ourselves in ways that can be difficult to achieve alone.
The struggles that bring us to therapy rarely appear out of nowhere. They often have a history, shaped by our relationships, experiences, and the ways we have learned to interact with the world. Taking time to explore those experiences can lead to a deeper understanding of ourselves and create the possibility for meaningful, lasting change.
My practice is grounded in psychoanalytic and psychodynamic psychotherapy. Rather than focusing only on the symptoms that bring you to therapy, we can explore the emotional experiences, relationships, and patterns that may be connected to what you are experiencing today.
Knowledge is not something I discover by observing you. It emerges through the process of speaking and listening together.
A space for your experience
My background as a researcher has shaped the way I think about questions, evidence, and human experience. My research has focused on areas including substance use and addiction, women’s health, migration, gender, and identity.
Psychoanalytic psychotherapy, however, follows a different path from scientific research.
Research seeks to understand observable phenomena from the outside. Psychotherapy begins with your own experience and unfolds through the relationship between us.
Your words, experiences, questions, and ways of making sense of your life are at the centre of our work.
I don’t come into sessions with a fixed idea of who you should become. Instead, I listen closely to the particular way you speak about your life: the words you return to, the details you move past, the questions that emerge, and sometimes the hesitations or contradictions that are difficult to notice on your own.
These moments can open the door to a different understanding of what you are experiencing.
Throughout our work together, I may offer questions, interpretations, and observations. These are not intended to give you ready-made answers. They are invitations to look more closely at parts of your experience that may remain outside conscious awareness.
Therapy in Three Languages
Therapy in English, Español, & Română
Sometimes the language we speak matters
I offer psychotherapy in English, Spanish, and Romanian.
For many people, the language in which they speak about their experiences matters more than they initially expect. This can be particularly meaningful during periods of migration, cultural transition, or significant change.
Being able to speak in a language that feels close to your experience can create room for thoughts, memories, and emotions that may be difficult to express otherwise.
If you would feel more comfortable speaking in English, Spanish, or Romanian, you are welcome to reach out.
Professional profile
Education & Professional Training
Registration & Professional Memberships
Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying)
College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario (CRPO)
Member
Ontario Society of Registered Psychotherapists
Education
PhD in Women’s Health
Complutense University of Madrid, Spain
Master’s Degree in Women’s Health
Complutense University of Madrid, Spain
Master’s Degree in Immigration, Refuge and Intercommunity Relationship
Autonomous University of Madrid, Spain
Master’s Degree in Clinical Psychoanalysis, ongoing
National University of San Martín, Argentina
Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology
Complutense University of Madrid, WES Recognized
Psychoanalytic Training
Psychoanalytic Training
Madrid Clinical Section (NUCEP), affiliated with the Institute of the Freudian Field in Spain
Participant
Initiative Toronto, a Lacanian psychoanalytic group connected to the New Lacanian School
Certifications
Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST)
Canadian Mental Health Association Toronto
You don't have to figure it out alone.
Beginning therapy can feel like a significant step, especially when you are not entirely sure where to begin.
You don’t need to have the right words or a clear explanation of what you’re experiencing. We can begin with what brings you here and explore from there.
If you are looking for psychodynamic or psychoanalytic psychotherapy in Toronto, or online therapy across Ontario, I welcome you to get in touch.