S2E4: Bridging Worlds: A Cultural Broker’s Lessons on Migration, Attachment, and Relentless Curiosity with Liliana Baylon, LMFT-S, RPT-S

Episode 4 | Season 2 Bridging Worlds: A Cultural Broker’s Lessons on Migration, Attachment, and Relentless Curiosity Guest: Liliana Baylon (@lilianabaylon) In this deeply reflective conversation, Alefyah sits down with therapist, trainer, and cultural bridge Liliana Baylon to explore what it means to live—and heal—between worlds. The eldest daughter in a migrant family, Liliana grew up translating language, systems, and emotion for her loved ones long before she had the words cultural broker. She shares how those early experiences shaped her path from business and mediation work into therapy, play therapy, and Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT)—and how each step invited her to zoom out, see the larger system, and keep asking questions. Together, Alefyah and Liliana trace the tender intersections of migration, family roles, and attachment through a cultural lens. They talk about the weight of being “the bridge,” the loneliness of belonging nowhere, and the quiet wisdom found in rituals and traditions that Western therapy often overlooks. Liliana describes how EFT first made her feel like her family “did attachment wrong,” and how curiosity, therapy, and compassion helped her rediscover the love that had always been there—just spoken in a different language. This episode is a meditation on curiosity as resistance: a way of humanizing our parents, reclaiming ancestral healing, and refusing to let any one lens—Western or traditional—define what care looks like. Highlights & Takeaways The cultural broker: eldest child, translator, advocate, and bridge between two worlds From MBA to mediation to therapy—when purpose shifts from planning to human connection “Zooming in and out”: child, couple, family, community—the whole system needs healing When EFT training first felt like “we did attachment wrong,” and what came after Pathologizing vs. contextualizing: seeing trauma and resilience in migration stories Humor, repair, and humility when working cross-culturally Rediscovering traditional healing and balancing it with clinical science “Nothing’s wrong with you”: exploring, integrating, and letting go with choice and compassion Curiosity as a daily practice—for clients, systems, and the self Mentioned Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) EMDR and Play Therapy Cultural brokerage and migration-informed therapy Traditional healing practices & University of New Mexico’s program on curanderismo Parallel processes between therapist and client The power of rituals, gardens, and nonverbal connection Connect with Liliana Baylon Training & Consultation: lilianabaylon.com Therapy Services: Healing Relationships Counseling Services ✨ Connect with Deconstructing Therapy (Alefyah Taqui) Therapy / Consultation • All Podcast Episodes Instagram: @taquitherapy • @deconstructingtherapy Facebook • TikTok • YouTube Special Thanks: George Alvarez & Rayana Consulting Chapters (00:00:00) - How to Explore Your Anxiety(00:00:35) - Deconstructing Therapy(00:01:55) - Teaching as a healer: What Got You into This Work?(00:10:23) - Working with migrants and first-generation families(00:16:48) - What EFT Community Members Need to Know(00:17:39) - "In the World of Curiosity"(00:18:46) - How EFT helped me learn how to Love my Parents(00:25:49) - How to assess a patient's care(00:26:37) - How to Let Go of Anxiety and Cognitive Challenges(00:31:02) - How to help a migrant parent with his trauma(00:37:14) - Wonders of Traditional Healing and the EFT

There are no comments yet.

Please log in to write the first comment.