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