Luminita (Lumi) Heretoiu – A Romanian native Psychotherapist in Miami, Florida

I was born in Bucharest, Romania, where I lived until my early twenties when I immigrated to the United States. Like every uprooted individual (perhaps even more so, one coming from a former Communist block), I struggled with culture shock. Feeling wildly misplaced, I had to adapt to everything from learning new rules of engagement with people and having no command of the English language to being perceived as an outsider, the unusual sweetness of vegetables and the unbearable humidity of Miami. A longing for home – and its familiar comforts – lingered with me for years. I suppressed most of those difficult feelings, as was culturally ingrained in me since youth, and pushed forward. After all, I was young, had a small family with me (thankfully) and big dreams.

From an early age, I’ve been fascinated by philosophy and art – hunting for answers to those universal existential questions and helplessly marveling at the imagination and creativity of which only humans are capable. With presumably little chance to make it in the esoteric world of modern philosophers and a palpable fascination with art’s ability to stir emotions, I had to at least join the world of art. That held true even more so when I came to the United States, where my ability to express myself through language became quite limited and expressing myself through some form of art became the necessary next best thing!

For a while then, I had a career in fashion design. Looking in retrospect, fashion has its own relation with the human psyche – it affects behavior, self-image, the way we feel, our attitude and even our identity. Clothes embody the state of mind we seek and influence the way others perceive and even treat us. Needless to say, the field is guilty of considerable trauma to us humans: warped body image, unhealthy weight ideals, etc. But outside of that, the job was delightful – making two-dimensional things fit three-dimensional bodies, drawing, fumbling through Pantone color themes and swatches, organizing fashion shows, some glamour, some frivolity, and all in all a lot of fun. To this day, some still ask me why I ever gave that up to become a psychotherapist.

The answer to that question is complex and countless events helped shape it over the course of many years — truth be told, plenty of them painful (there is a reason why us psychotherapists are often called wounded healers). As I got older and my need to articulate myself through some artistic medium started to settle down, space was created for getting back to square one – understanding myself and others, this time in a brand-new effort to make sense of the world of humans by studying psychology.

And so, the adventure that brought me on this page today began: attending school once again at an older age, balancing work, parenting and never-ending studying; then everything else after the academic training so that I can at last call myself a psychotherapist. It was a long and painstaking process, but when the clinical work truly started, I had the certainty that my decision to enter this field was the absolute right choice. I worked/work with many populations and presenting issues, inpatient and outpatient – people struggling with substance use at The Watershed Addiction Treatment Programs, people with mental illness in jail at Armor Correctional Health Services/Broward Jails System, severely mentally ill and elderly at Aventura Hospital and Medical Center, families impacted by the mental illness of their loved ones, people affected by trauma of all kinds, couples, people dealing with retirement or empty nest etc. Indeed, it is hard work to sit across from human suffering, symbolically holding the hands of people when they are at their most vulnerable, but it is an amazingly meaningful and humbling job. I am really grateful that life took me where I am today. Should we partner on your path to wellness, know that I’ll be more than honored to accompany you.