More than “What is your problem?”, I am interested in “What is your story?”

My clinical approach is based on a relational model where the therapeutic relationship and creating a safe and containing environment are key to our work. We will work at your pace, and we will explore both your therapeutic goals and what to expect from our sessions. There might also be an opportunity to explore your early life experiences and how they might have shaped the way you now relate to yourself and others.

Alongside being a Clinical Psychologist, I am also an accredited Schema Therapist by the International Society of Schema Therapy.

Schema Therapy is an integrative approach, combining elements of cognitive-behavioural, psychodynamic, and gestalt therapy, developed to address unmet needs and to help clients break patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving, which are often problematic, and to develop healthier alternatives to replace them.

The schema model suggests that when we are born, we are clueless about the world, about ourselves, and others. We rely on others, often the caregivers, to make sense of our emotions, relationships, and who we are in this social world. We are born we a set of core emotional needs, such as the need to feel accepted, be loved, and protected from harm. When these core needs are not met, we develop schemas. Schemas are the lenses through which we see the world. They include a pattern of feelings, thoughts, memories, and body sensations that become the template through which we make sense of our experiences.

We will work together to identify these patterns of relating that might have caused you difficulties in the past or that might have been holding you back from achieving your goals. This will help you to make sense of difficult past experiences and keep you from being overwhelmed by their effects.

I offer online sessions in English and Portuguese on Microsoft Teams.