Citlali “Lali” Herrera, Lcsw
Holistic psychospiritual therapist for anxious millennials who learned to stay small, quiet, and strong for everyone but themselves.
Hello!…
My name is Citlali (pronounced seet-la-lee), but everyone calls me Lali — yes, like “lollipop!”
I help anxious millennials who grew up with emotionally immature parents unlearn the patterns that kept them small and reclaim their voice, their intuition, and their inner knowing.
Outside of therapy, you can usually find me wandering through a garden nursery convincing myself I definitely have room for more plants, singing to trees, sipping on tea, admiring my garden, searching for birds, or cuddling one of my two precious cats.
Therapy for me is more of synergetic experience than a concrete structured process. I believe that we co-creating a sacred container together. I invite both of our authentic selves to show up in the room together.
How I work with you
Your healing is not linear. It’s layered, sacred, and deeply intelligent.
My work blends:
Psychodynamic + attachment repair — tracing the emotional blueprint you inherited.
Hypnotherapy + subconscious work — healing where the roots actually live.
Somatic + nature-based therapy — because your body remembers what your mind tried to survive.
Psychedelic-informed support — opening pathways that talk therapy alone can’t reach.
Spiritual and symbolic work — dreams, intuition, ancestry, the unseen guidance you’ve always felt.
This is therapy that honors all of you: the logical, the emotional, the intuitive, the mystical.
You don’t have to hide your inner world here.
You get to bring it with you.
Hi! I’m Citlali Herrera, LCSW
Where I work:
From your home!
Online therapy throughout New York & New Jersey
Why I Do This Work
My healing journey began as soon as I left home for social work school. For the first time, I had space to see myself clearly—outside the roles I had been carrying for so long. I didn’t have the words for it then, but something in me was aching to be known more deeply, to be understood in a way I hadn’t yet experienced.
As I stepped into adulthood, I realized how much of my identity had been shaped by keeping the peace, staying small, and taking care of others’ emotions before my own. The deeper layers of healing unfolded when I began exploring my relationship with spirituality and, soon after, psychedelics. At 20, I experienced my first intentional psychedelic journey. At 22, I sat in my first ayahuasca ceremony. That experience cracked open a new level of awareness—of myself, of my history, and of the interconnected web of healing I was meant to walk.
When I moved to New York City to pursue my master’s at NYU, I discovered that psychedelics were being studied as clinical tools for mental health—and I was in awe. My passion for spiritual healing and my training as a therapist didn’t have to be separate. That moment confirmed I was on the right path.
Since then, I’ve continued to study hypnotherapy, deepen my connection to Spirit, and expand my ability to support clients in exploring their own inner landscapes. For fun (yes, really), I take courses in everything from shamanism to yogic philosophy to psychedelic facilitation.
I truly believe the deeper I go within myself, the deeper I can go with my clients. And that healing isn't just about insight—it's about being seen, deeply and truly, maybe for the first time.
Guided by Ancestry
I identify as Chicana (Mexican-American), and my full name, Citlalicue, comes from the Nahuatl language—the Indigenous tongue of my ancestors. In Aztec mythology, Citlalicue is the goddess of the stars, the cosmos, and creation itself. She is linked to the Milky Way, the Earth, and the sacred cycles of life, death, and rebirth.
Her presence lives in my name and in my work. I feel deeply connected to her energy—a reminder of the vastness of the human spirit and the healing that comes from embracing both light and shadow.
As a Latina therapist and woman of color, I bring cultural depth, ancestral wisdom, and reverence into the healing space. My background shapes the way I hold space for clients—especially those who’ve felt unseen, unheard, or disconnected from their roots.
Credentials
MSW, New York University
Licensed Clinical Social Worker (NY & NJ)
Certified Hypnotherapist
Certified Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapist (KAP)
Training in somatics, ACT, mindfulness-based approaches, yoga, and reiki
A bit about me, beyond the degrees
When I’m not deep in the world of healing and subconscious work, you can usually find me doing one of the following:
wandering through the woods asking the trees for life advice
making my morning MudWTR like it’s a spiritual ceremony (because… it is)
having a photoshoot with my sleeping cat
watching something silly or “mindless”, like Love is Blind or Portlandia
or listening to my ancestors, intuition, and Spotify playlists in equal measure
I’m a first-generation Latina with one foot in the clinical world and one foot in the intuitive, earthy, spiritual world.
Both matter deeply to me.
Both shape how I see you.
And both help me create a space where you don’t have to hide the tender, strange, sacred parts of who you are.
Healing is serious work — but you’re allowed to laugh, sigh, roll your eyes, make memes about your trauma patterns, and be human here.
Honestly, it’s encouraged.
Contact
Tel: 914-222-1404
citlali@innerworldspsychotherapy.com
Online Therapy: NY • NJ
Westchester, NY (Virtual & nature-based)