Not with a partner. With the oldest relationship you have, the one with yourself.
This isn't a page about couples work. There's no partner in the room, and no specific relationship being repaired. There's one pattern, shaped long before any relationship you've ever had: how you close down when someone gets close, what happens to your self-criticism when someone sees you exposed, how easily you can ask for help and actually let it in. That attachment pattern is the lens you meet everyone through, including the people who aren't in the room with you.
I'm trained in couples therapy, and attachment theory is my core material. When there's no partner in the room, I work the same material through your relationship with yourself, the place every one of your attachments begins. The journey itself is yours.
Read first: general preparation and integration, or if you're coming to this as a couple, MDMA couples work.
Before: meeting yourself prepared
Preparation opens with one question: what does your attachment pattern do when something big opens up. People arrive in the world with a way of learning whether closeness is safe, and carry it into every room they enter, including a room where no one else is present. Research on MDMA shows the substance reduces fear and defensiveness and increases trust, partly through oxytocin release and reduced amygdala activity, which may open a window where it's easier to touch that pattern without it taking over. MAPS, MDMA-Assisted Therapy for PTSD.
In preparation we build an honest intention, name the pattern, and decide who's nearby if needed, a support person, me by phone, or no one, whatever is true for you, and what the plan is if something difficult surfaces.
A concrete tool: mapping your attachment pattern
Four questions we go through together in preparation, before the day itself:
1. When someone gets emotionally close to you, is your first instinct to pull them in or to pull away?
2. When you're alone with a big feeling, do you reach for someone or close the door?
3. What happens to your self-criticism when someone sees you at your most vulnerable?
4. Who is the person, not necessarily a partner, whose presence makes your body relax the most?
After: integration through your relationship with yourself
Research on recreational MDMA users found the substance increased self-compassion, and the effect was stronger specifically in people carrying avoidant attachment, the pattern that finds it hardest to be gentle with itself. This isn't proven treatment and isn't a substitute for one, but it points exactly at what individual integration works on: not just what you saw, but how you talk to yourself afterward. Kamboj et al., 2015, Journal of Psychopharmacology.
Integration sessions in the weeks after are where something that touched you for one moment becomes a habit: how you ask for help, how you let closeness stay without running or clinging, and how the voice that talks to you when you fall changes. Nothing you bring will be judged or pathologized.
By the end
By the end of preparation you'll have: a name for your pattern, a safety and support plan, and an intention you stand behind.
By the end of integration: a new way of talking to yourself, already practiced enough times to be there when you need it.
The most meaningful attachment you'll bring into this room
isn't with someone sitting there with you. It's with yourself.
Common questions
No. I do not provide, source, sell or administer any substances, and I am not present during anyone's journey. What I offer is preparation and integration coaching, and education.
MDMA assisted therapy is not an approved treatment in Portugal, Israel or most of the world. Nothing on this page is an encouragement to break any law; know and respect the laws where you are.
Couples work focuses on the connection between two people in the room. Here there is no partner in the process. The work is on the oldest relationship you have, the one with yourself, and on the attachment pattern that shaped it: how you close down or open up, how you receive closeness, and what happens to your self-criticism when someone sees you at your most exposed.
No. I work with attachment patterns even without a clinical diagnosis, with people who recognize a hard time settling into closeness, harsh self-criticism, or a tendency to shut down when things open up. If there is a trauma history, it's best to tell me in advance so preparation can be shaped around it.
Yes. Preparation and integration sessions happen over Zoom worldwide, or in person in the Lisbon and Sintra area, in English and Hebrew.
Most people do two to three preparation sessions, and two to three integration sessions in the weeks after. We shape the exact container together in a 30 minute intro call.
Prefer WhatsApp? Message me directly