Thanks for reading! My name is Amanda Cruz Gerena and I am a counseling psychologist, sexual and public health professional, and researcher, from the beautiful Island of Puerto Rico.

I hold two Master’s degrees, M.S. in Counseling Psychology and M.Ed in Human Sexuality, and and over the past decade, I’ve provided therapy, developed public health initiatives in HIV and harm reduction, and worked in university-based research.

A central question guiding my work is how cultural and religious belief systems shape sexual communication and decision-making within intimate relationships among different Latine and Caribbean groups. I am particularly interested in how individuals internalize and negotiate moral frameworks surrounding intimacy, drawing from ecological systems theory, sexual script theory, and social constructionist perspectives.

But my work didn’t emerge in a vacuum, it was shaped just as much by lived experience as by academic training.

Travel, in particular, became one of the most transformative influences in my life.

In my twenties. After a not-so-great relationship in 2014, and letting my impulsive self take over, I wanted to go as far from Puerto Rico as I could. And so, I somehow found an international volunteering organization, prayed to the universe it was a legit website, and booked a flight to Bali, Indonesia…just me myself and I. I was chasing that Eat, Pray, Love experience, of course, but what I found was far more transformative than I could have imagined. It changed the way I saw myself, my relationships, and the world around me. This experience, and the people I met on that trip changed the course of my life.

After Bali, I solo-traveled to Brazil in 2015, and then in 2017 backpacked through Nepal, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand. Along the way, I worked at a hostel in Italy, attempted (and quickly humbled myself through) an au pair experience in London, made my way through Scotland, and eventually landed in Amsterdam, where I completed a summer sexuality program that helped further shape my path in this field.

Traveling solo was a magical part of my twenties, and something I feel deeply grateful to have experienced. I was able to explore parts of myself through places and people I will never forget.

While my love for travel hasn’t changed, becoming a parent has shifted it in ways I never expected. This space is where all of those experiences come together, my work, my travels, and the ways I continue to grow and redefine myself through each stage of life.

I invite you to join me in exploring the complexities of intimacy, identity, and connection, across places and within ourselves.