Hi, I'm Carina,

I have a degree in Clinical and Health Psychology – as part of the Integrated Master’s Degree in Psychology provided by the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of the University of Coimbra – in the clinical sub-area of Psychopathology and Dynamic Psychotherapies.
I am also a member of the Portuguese Psychologists’ Association.
I think it’s important to point out that the guidelines I focus on in my clinical work are psychodynamic and psychoanalytic, so the primary focus of analysis – mine as a therapist and, implicitly, that of the person who develops a therapeutic relationship with me – will always be Psychic Suffering, regardless of the form it may take.
This last aspect will perhaps be the structural point and the motto for me to briefly introduce myself, while remaining absolutely faithful to what guides me as a Clinical Psychologist: As far as my professional experience and interests are concerned, they have focused on Psychological Assessment and Psychological Support for Children (in the form of Play Therapy consultations) and Psychological Support for Adolescents and Adults, in a hospital context and in private practice.
In parallel, (and returning to the issue of Psychic Suffering) it is of some relevance to make a brief mention of my particular interest in the study, research and work developed in the area of Psychosomatics – as a branch of Psychological Knowledge based on the consideration that certain unconscious patterns of emotional experience and psychic dynamics may predispose a human being to physical illness.
Also in this area, the basic premise on which I base a large part of my professional convictions and which, moreover, is transversal to the vast majority of psychodynamic techniques and models, is that the Relationship (here understood in its simplest form) is the hard core, whether for the growth and development of any human being, or for their illness or disorganization.
In this way, and without losing sight of the issue of Psychic Suffering (of whatever order and with whatever symptomatological configurations it may present itself), it will be in creating and strengthening the Therapeutic Relationship – by helping to put “legends” on ways of feeling and perceiving reality – that I will be able to help provide increasingly adjusted, intuitive and spontaneous states of internal understanding and, as a result, emotional experiences of less strangeness and discomfort.