La psiquiatra trabaja junto con la psicóloga para cuidar mi salud mental.

The psychiatrist works together with the psychologist to take care of my mental health.

Breakdown of La psiquiatra trabaja junto con la psicóloga para cuidar mi salud mental.

• mi: my
• trabajar: to work
• para: to
• la salud: the health
• mental: mental
• cuidar: to take care of
• la psicóloga: the psychologist
• la psiquiatra: the psychiatrist
• junto con: together with

Questions & Answers about La psiquiatra trabaja junto con la psicóloga para cuidar mi salud mental.

Why is there la before psiquiatra and psicóloga, when I’ve seen professions without an article (like Soy médico)?

In Spanish, professions can appear with or without an article depending on the structure:

• After the verb ser in a general sense, you usually omit the article:

  • Soy psiquiatra. = I’m a psychiatrist.
  • Es psicóloga. = She’s a psychologist.

• When you’re talking about a specific person (not just “a” psychiatrist in general), you normally use the definite article:

  • La psiquiatra que me atiende es muy buena. = The psychiatrist who treats me is very good.
  • La psicóloga del hospital es nueva. = The psychologist at the hospital is new.

In the sentence La psiquiatra trabaja junto con la psicóloga…, we are clearly talking about specific professionals involved in my treatment, so Spanish uses la before each profession.

How do we know the psychiatrist and the psychologist are women? Could these words refer to men?

We know they are women because of the articles and endings:

• la psiquiatra

  • The word psiquiatra itself is the same for men and women.
  • The article shows the gender:
    • la psiquiatra = a female psychiatrist
    • el psiquiatra = a male psychiatrist

• la psicóloga

  • Here the noun changes its ending:
    • el psicólogo = male psychologist
    • la psicóloga = female psychologist

So in this sentence, both are clearly female professionals. If they were men, it would be el psiquiatra and el psicólogo.

What is the difference between psiquiatra and psicóloga in Spanish?

The difference is basically the same as in English:

• psiquiatra = psychiatrist

  • A medical doctor (went to medical school).
  • Can prescribe medication.
  • Treats mental health problems often with a combination of medication and other approaches.

• psicóloga = psychologist (female)

  • Typically has a degree in psychology, not medicine.
  • Focuses more on psychotherapy, psychological testing, counseling, etc.
  • In many countries, cannot prescribe medication.

So the sentence describes a psychiatrist and a psychologist working together on the speaker’s mental health.

Why is the verb trabaja singular if there are two people (the psychiatrist and the psychologist)?

Grammatically, only one of those people is the subject of the verb:

• La psiquiatra = the grammatical subject
• junto con la psicóloga = a prepositional phrase meaning together with the psychologist (it does not form part of the subject)

So the verb agrees with la psiquiatra only:

• La psiquiatra trabaja junto con la psicóloga…
  → The psychiatrist works, together with the psychologist…

If you wanted the verb to clearly agree with both people as the subject, you would say:

• La psiquiatra y la psicóloga trabajan juntas para cuidar mi salud mental.
  (Here, the subject is a plural “la psiquiatra y la psicóloga”, so trabajan is plural.)

Why is there no subject pronoun like Ella at the start (e.g., Ella trabaja…)?

Spanish is a “pro‑drop” language: you usually omit subject pronouns (yo, tú, él, ella, etc.) when the subject is clear from:

• the verb ending, or
• a noun that’s explicitly stated (like la psiquiatra).

In this sentence, la psiquiatra is already the subject, so adding ella would be redundant:

• ✅ La psiquiatra trabaja… (natural)
• ❌ Ella la psiquiatra trabaja… (incorrect / redundant)

You would only add a pronoun like ella for contrast or emphasis, when there’s ambiguity or when you’ve dropped the noun:

• Ella trabaja junto con la psicóloga…
  (Here, ella replaces the noun, so it’s fine.)

What exactly does junto con mean, and how is it different from just con?

• con = with (neutral accompaniment)

  • Trabajo con ella. = I work with her.

• junto con = together with / along with

  • It suggests working side by side, collaboration, or being in the same group or team.
  • La psiquiatra trabaja junto con la psicóloga…
    → The psychiatrist works together with the psychologist…

You could say trabaja con la psicóloga, and it would still be correct, but junto con adds a bit more sense of close cooperation or joint action.

Shouldn’t junto agree with the feminine subject? Why isn’t it junta con la psicóloga?

Junto can function in two different ways:

1. As an adjective (it then agrees in gender and number):

   • Están juntas. = They (fem.) are together.
   • Las dos trabajan juntas. = The two of them (fem.) work together.

2. As part of the fixed adverbial expression junto con (together with):

   • In junto con, junto is treated as invariable (it doesn’t change form).
   • So we say:
     • El médico trabaja junto con la enfermera.
     • La psiquiatra trabaja junto con la psicóloga.
       (Always junto con, regardless of gender.)

Some people do say junta con in conversation, but the most standard and widely accepted form is junto con for everyone.

What is the purpose of para + infinitive in para cuidar mi salud mental?

para + infinitive expresses purpose or intention and is usually translated as “(in order) to + verb”:

• para cuidar mi salud mental = to take care of my mental health / in order to take care of my mental health.

So:

• La psiquiatra trabaja junto con la psicóloga para cuidar mi salud mental.
  → The psychiatrist works together with the psychologist *in order to take care of my mental health.*

A very common learner rule of thumb:

• Same “logical subject” for both actions → para + infinitive
• Clearly different subject for the second action → para que + subjunctive
  
  • Trabajan para que yo mejore. = They work so that I get better.

Why is it cuidar mi salud mental and not cuidar de mi salud mental?

Both cuidar algo/a alguien and cuidar de algo/de alguien exist, but:

• In most modern usage, especially in Latin America, you more often see:

  • cuidar algo / a alguien (direct object, no de)
  • cuidar mi salud, cuidar a mis hijos, cuidar el jardín.

• cuidar de tends to sound a bit more formal, older, or more common in Spain:

  • cuidar de los enfermos, cuidar de la casa.

In Latin-American Spanish, cuidar mi salud mental (without de) is the most natural and common form.

Why isn’t there an article before salud mental? Why not la mi salud mental or mi la salud mental?

Spanish does not combine a possessive adjective (mi, tu, su…) with a definite article (la, el, los, las) in front of the same noun:

• ✅ mi salud mental = my mental health
• ❌ la mi salud mental (wrong)
• ❌ mi la salud mental (wrong)

You either say:

• mi salud mental (my mental health), or
• la salud mental de mi / la salud mental mía (very unusual here; sounds heavy or poetic).

So in normal speech, mi salud mental is the correct and natural choice.

Why is it mi salud mental and not mis salud mental?

The form of mi/mis depends on whether the thing possessed is singular or plural:

• mi = my (singular noun)
  
  • mi casa, mi perro, mi salud.
• mis = my (plural noun)
  
  • mis casas, mis perros, mis amigos.

Here, salud is grammatically singular, so we use:

• mi salud mental (not mis salud mental).

Why is the word order salud mental and not mental salud?

Spanish usually places adjectives after nouns, especially when:

• The adjective classifies the noun into a subtype or category, rather than just adding a subjective description.

So:

• salud mental = mental health (type of health)
• salud física = physical health
• educación primaria = primary education
• trabajo social = social work

Mental salud would sound very strange; you’d only see something like that in poetry or very marked, stylistic language. The fixed, standard term is salud mental.

How do you pronounce psiquiatra and psicóloga, and why does only psicóloga have an accent mark?

Pronunciation (simplified):

• psiquiatra → roughly “see-KYAH-trah”

  • The p in ps is silent, so it starts with an s sound.
  • qui sounds like ki (the u is silent).
  • Stress naturally falls on the second-to-last syllable: -quia- → si-KYAH-tra.

• psicóloga → roughly “see-KO-lo-ga”

  • Again, the initial p is silent: psi = si.
  • The written accent on ó marks it as the stressed syllable: si-KÓ-lo-ga.

Accent marks:

• psiquiatra ends in a vowel, and the stress is on the second‑to‑last syllable (-quia-), which matches the default stress rule in Spanish → no written accent needed.
• psicóloga also ends in a vowel, so normally the stress would fall on -lo-.
  But in reality we stress có (the third‑to‑last syllable), which breaks the default rule.
  → Therefore it needs a written accent: psicóloga.