Equipo

Victoria comes from a diverse background of cultures, languages and religions. She is the Daughter of a Spanish father, who migrated to London for 30 years, and a South African mother raised in London. Her maternal grandparents of Jewish religion arrived in South Africa from Latvia who later migrated to London when her mother was 16 years old, where today, and all her family live. Victoria never misses a chance to go a few times a year to the UK to spend time with her grandparents and the rest of her family. She has fond memories of indulging in typical roast dinner and homemade apple pie with custard. You will never see her start her day without a good cup of English breakfast tea.

During her years as a student, Victoria started by collaborating at the Counselling Service of the University of Cadiz, helping other students. It was then that she became interested in the influence of not only family dynamics among the well-being of young people, but also the pressure that society exerts on beauty standards. In the last year of her degree, she decided to research about these topics through a study that investigates communities on social media that defend eating disorders as lifestyles. This interest lays the foundation of her future academic and professional career.

In 2016 she arrived in Madrid to complete the Master’s Degree in Clinical and Health Psychology at the Autonomous University of Madrid and chose the Eating Disorders Unit of the Hospital Santa Cristina as her training internship. During this time, she collaborated in the research about risk factors linked to the onset of eating disorders, at this same University. This collaboration was highly successful and published.

After completing her Masters, she worked for two years at the Eating Disorders Unit at ITA Salud Mental and led group therapies about strength, self-image and social skills. She also had to carry out crisis interventions to support and accompany people who were struggling to overcome their obsession with their image and regain a healthy relationship with food. During that experience, she became aware of how the suffering of a person can have a great impact on family dynamics and how it can perpetuate the problem unwittingly. This led her to start her second four-year master specialising on family and couples therapy with a Systematic approach (ATENEA).

This master gave her the opportunity to approach the universe of couples’ relationships. A relationship of two where a greater connexion is made, more than any other kind of relationship, which follows its own circle of life. A pathway run by two, with obstacles that can have an impact on that connexion or even make it stronger.

In the last year, her experience as a psychologist at private practice has allowed her to grow professionally incorporating a systemic approach together with cognitive-behavioural therapy. As a couple therapist, many times she has heard “we are rolling our last dice” and frequently it is true. An opportunity to reconnect, rebuild, or to end a chapter with the emotional support needed to remember the best of the story.

Victoria is a psychologist committed to the wellbeing of her clients. For her, it’s crucial that you feel comfortable, understood, and in no way judged, creating an environment of security and trust, where together we can design a personalized treatment.

Alejandro Sancha is a clinical psychologist with extensive experience in cognitive-behavioral therapy and comprehensive assessment and rehabilitation of individuals facing acquired brain injuries.

He is intimately familiar with the challenges that international relocations pose for children and their families, having lived in different countries (Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru) from a very young age. During this period, he attended educational institutions such as the Liceo Francés de Lima and the Liceo Francés de Madrid, where a variety of cultures converged, coinciding with teachers and classmates from diverse backgrounds.

From the beginning, Alejandro aimed to combine his passion for sciences with the desire to work with people, ultimately guiding him towards the field of Psychology.

His academic journey includes studies in clinical psychology, complemented by two years of international exchange programs in the United States (State University of New York) and France (Université Jules Verne).

His passion for the stages of childhood and adolescence led him to pursue a postgraduate degree in child and adolescent psychology. For Alejandro, these are vital moments in which a great array of changes and circumstances converge, offering a valuable opportunity to make a positive impact on the development of each child.

Interestingly, Alejandro also holds a particular fascination with the later stages of life. His grandparents play a vital role in his life, and their ongoing support and influence remain indispensable. Aware of the challenges posed by functional decline in both aging and brain damage, he obtained a master’s degree in Clinical Neuropsychology to help his patients navigate this path as best as possible. His internship at the Polibea Sur brain injury rehabilitation center have allowed him to closely understand the daily challenges faced by affected individuals and their families.

During his master’s studies, he was part of the “Clinical Psychology and Health” research group, participating in the research project «Parental stress and disability. A psychological flexibility training program in the era of COVID-19» at the European University of Madrid.

Through courses, annual conferences, and additional training, he maintains a dedicated commitment to continuous professional development, recognizing its fundamental role in ensuring the highest quality in the provision of health services.

With the experience of having lived in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, the United States, France, Spain, and India, Alejandro has cultivated a deep appreciation for cultural diversity and a unique understanding of the complexities inherent in different living environments.

In his professional practice, conducted in English, French, and Spanish, Alejandro follows an evidence-based approach, placing the well-being of his clients at the forefront.

His work is characterized by helping individuals gain a profound understanding of the psychological processes underlying their experiences, providing them with the knowledge and strategies necessary to effectively face life’s challenges.

Alejandro’s profound passion for understanding human behavior and the scientific principles that support it drives his commitment to facilitating his clients’ journey toward psychological well-being. His ultimate goal is to accompany the people he works with through practical strategies for personal development and lasting positive change.

Marta is a licensed psychologist and psychotherapist who specializes in working with children, teens and adults and provides therapy in English, Polish and Spanish. She integrates her humanistic approach with techniques of cognitive-behavioral and systemic therapy to tailor the treatment to every patient´s unique circumstances and needs.

Born and raised in Warsaw, by Polish parents, Marta studied English at the British Council and her interest for British culture brought her to spend many of her summer holidays in Ramsgate. Her fondness for travel and foreign languages led her to take up Russian and French classes and to a 2-month stay in Nice (France). Finally, she chose Madrid as her destination, with an initial plan of staying for 1 year only, as a part of the Erasmus exchange program at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. She knows first-hand the challenges of being a university student abroad. To this unforgettable experience she owes a group of intimate friends from a variety of countries and cultures. Marta has started her own multicultural and multilingual family, which makes her sensitive and aware of the struggles that expatriate children and adults often have to face. She combined the last years of her studies with working as an English teacher at Kids & Us School of English and later on at Gymboree Play & Music, an early stimulation program -very popular in the USA- based on parent-child interactive activities encouraging psychomotor and language development.

At the beginning of her career path, Marta´s involvement in a clinical study concerning the preterm infants and their families brought her to explore the field of early childhood intervention. Throughout the years she has gathered a great deal of experience helping children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), ADHD, and other issues such as anxiety, phobias, depression and behavioral difficulties. She conducts workshops to provide parents with a variety of tools based on respectful parenting and positive discipline to use in their everyday life. Play is one of the most important parts of Marta´s work with children as it is the most natural way of expression of their emotions and needs.

Marta can help parents find answers to questions that emerge during child development such as: How can I help my child in achieving developmental milestones? How to deal with my child's anger? How can I support my child in improving social skills? How to find a common language with my teenager? And more...

Throughout her 10-year experience as a psychologist, while still working with children, Marta has continuously delved into the tools and skills offered by different schools of psychotherapy an extended her work to adult patients. Marta has experience helping adults who are struggling with adaptation and social difficulties, anxiety and depression, stressful and traumatic situations, grief, life transitions and multicultural issues.

In concordance with the principles of Gestalt Psychotherapy, Marta applies a holistic perspective on the human being that puts particular focus on the here and now. It is crucial for her to offer a safe and non-judgmental space in order to promote self-growth. For Marta, psychotherapy is a process that empowers the patient to become more aware of the true mechanisms behind her/his behaviors, so that she/he is able to change those that have stopped being useful. (awareness) de sus mecanismos de actuación para que pueda cambiar los que han dejado de servirle.

Dr Alma Moser, born in France to a French mother and a German father, grew up in a diverse and international environment, living in several European countries and the United States (Florida), where she first went to kindergarten and acquired her American English. During high school she also spent half a year in Toronto, Canada, where she learned about Canadian culture and way of life.

Dr Moser chose medicine with Psychiatry in mind and the idea to deepen her knowledge about how the body and the mind work together and the influences they have on each other. After the first year of medical school in Luxembourg, Dr Moser pursued her studies at the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium. As a university student she decided to spend a semester abroad in Santiago de Chile working in a local hospital, including a rotation in Psychiatry which was her first experience with mental health in Spanish. During her studies, she learned what it meant to start living and working in a new place from scratch, with a new culture, new language and rebuilding a social network. In 2019, after marrying a Spaniard, Dr Moser settled with her multilingual family in Madrid.

In a nutshell, Dr Moser knows the expatriate and multilingual experience inside out and is able to empathize fully with patients in that situation.

During the five-year residency of Psychiatry in Belgium, Dr Moser has worked with patients of all ages and has had the opportunity to combine different work environments such as hospital, emergency room, ambulatory health center and day care center, where she had the opportunity to learn and implement validated treatments for mental pathologies such as depression (including post- partum), anxiety, schizophrenia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or eating disorders, among others.

Furthermore, Dr Moser is in the final year of a four-year program in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy for children and is writing a thesis on family secrets and their impact on patients and their families. She has worked with children and adolescents suffering from autism, behavioral disorders, self- harm and suicidal thoughts.

As a therapist, Dr Moser stays as close as possible to patients and their history, knowing that each of them is unique, with their own resources and challenges, and deserves tailored answers and help. This requires good theoretical knowledge and flexibility, combined with medication only when and if necessary.

Doctor Gloria Baquero Mahecha studied medicine at Sabana University in Colombia, her native country, where she was required to pass the TOEFL to obtain her medical degree. Thus, thanks to her complete professional competence in English and being a brilliant student, she was able to train for a semester in the research area in Psychiatry at UT Southwestern University in Dallas in the areas of Psychosis and Bipolar disorder. At the time, Gloria already had a clear vocation: her interest in learning the biological bases of human behavior and emotions, combined with her regard for a more personal and close doctor-patient relationship led her to psychiatry.

To complete this path she chooses to move to Spain, where she works in an nursing home while preparing the MIR (the test to access medical specialties training). During this time, she discovers that she loves working with the elderly, both because of the richness of the experiences of other times that they share and because of the indignation caused by the tendency to evict or reduce therapeutic effort and dignified treatment when patients are over the 80-year barrier.

She completed her specialty degree in Psychiatry at the Navarra University Clinic where she trained both in the care of acute patients with an urgent discomfort (panic attacks, suicide attempts, acute psychoses...) and the continuity of patient´s care already in consultation until discharge for improvement. During her specialization, she would reconnect with the reality of older adults in a rotation in Psychogeriatrics at the Sagrat Cor Hospital in Martorell and also participating in several courses and conferences on this topic.

Expert in distinguishing cognitive impairment due to physical cause from secondary impairment to a depressive state as well as in diagnosing mental problems in elderly people with neurological problems such as Parkinson's or brain-vascular accidents and treating behavioral problems in people with dementia, Gloria is aware of the need to look for treatment options that do not interact with the numerous drugs that the most senior take daily.

At the end of her specialization and after reaching a B2 level in Danish, she moved to Aalborg, a city in the north of Denmark, where she worked as a Psychiatrist at the university hospital for a year and a half. There she divided her professional activity in the care of adolescents and adults with emotional problems of different causes, , especially due to the difficulties that arise due to the change of residence, frequent in exchange students, multiracial couples as well as problems arising from situations of high stress at work. Part of her clinical performance in addition to external consultation, occurs in the hospital setting in units of admission for patients with more acute conditions and who require more intensive care.

She returned to Spain in 2015 and settled in Madrid. She joined a multinational Travel Insurance Assistance Center as a medical advisor. In this work her experience as a doctor and psychiatrist allowed her to attend and handle cases remotely in different countries as well as perform medical escort duties in cases that require repatriation due to acute mental states.

Dr. Gloria Baquero is an experienced psychiatrist with a warm and friendly touch that makes consultation easier. Her concern with offering the best treatment adapted to each case gives excellent results regarding patient and family satisfaction.

Daughter of an American mother (Minnesota and Iowa) and a Spanish father, Alba has always lived in a bicultural and bilingual environment. Initially brought up in Spain, her family moved to the States, where Alba confronted the difficulties of adapting to the American School System and to another culture. This is where she became conscious of the support needed by children when required to study in a different language and country.

Her first contact with Speech Therapy was as a teenager through her bilingual cousin who, after living in Scotland for a while, had difficulty pronouncing the Spanish “r” sound. This awakened an interest in language as an instrument for communication and lead her to study Speech Therapy, graduating from the Universidad Complutense of Madrid in 2009. Shortly after this she began providing at-home speech therapy services to children with language delay, and in 2011 she started working at the Centro de Rehabilitación del Lenguaje, with dysphonia patients. In the same year she obtained the Voice Pathology Expert diploma, through Fundación ICH of Alcalá de Henares University. She then began working in the Centro de Rehabilitación del Lenguaje in the Sanitas Millenium and Zarzuela Medical Centers assessing, diagnosing and treating patients suffering from language, speaking, voice and swallowing disorders.

Following her first son’s birth, and later with the arrival of her daughter to the family, Alba chose to join the world of working with schools, allowing for more compatibility with family life. She worked at the International School of Madrid, combining this work with speech therapy services at home with patients with speech, language and/or literacy disorders in English and Spanish. Her work in the educational environment has given her knowledge of how language problems hinder learning and a full awareness of how receiving help in time allows children to develop their potential.

As a mother of bilingual children, in her family she applies the OPOL (One Person One Language) system, she speaks in English to the children and her husband speaks in Spanish. This experience further enriches her profile as a speech therapist who cares for children exposed to more than one language either at home or in school.

Growing up in a bilingual and multicultural environment has been a determining factor in the development of Emma’s personal skills and interests. Her father, from the UK, after finishing his studies, began his working life in London, which he later developed in Spain, maintaining a strong bond with British culture. For this reason, Emma feels deeply attached to her English roots, relating them to her calm personality and some of her habits such as having a nice cup of tea in the afternoon. Emma was raised in Zaragoza with her parents and her mother’s family, but she has been in constant contact with her British relatives, making long visits every summer. Her fluency in the language has allowed her to engage in other multicultural experiences, such as an Erasmus at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands. Thanks to this, she has been able to get to know people of different nationalities.

Since her teenage years, Emma has cultivated a strong desire to understand human relationships and emotions. It was in her last years of high school, when faced with the anxiety produced by academic pressure, that she became deeply interested in psychology and experienced the benefits of psychological support. During her undergraduate studies at the Autonomous University of Madrid, she was able to satisfy her curiosity regarding identity and the effects of social pressures on the search for acceptance, success and beauty. In addition, through complementary courses, she expanded her knowledge of gender and sexuality issues.

In her undergraduate internship, she became familiar with the psychology of elderly people. She worked in cognitive stimulation workshops and provided emotional support to people in a complicated phase of their lives. She learned strategies to help the elderly cope with the difficulties of decline and grief. At the same time, she became aware of the need to provide support to family caregivers.

Through her master’s studies in General Health Psychology, she came into contact with a different population. She carried out her internship at the mental health centre ITA PRISMA in Zaragoza, where she was able to approach the treatment of some of the major disorders that affect children and adolescents. In particular, she focused on the understanding and treatment of eating disorders and anxious-depressive disorders, from a multidisciplinary perspective and including work with families.

In addition, she has expanded her training by providing therapeutic support to adolescents and adults through AAPIPNA (Asociación Aragonesa de la Investigación Psíquica del Niño y el Adolescente), as well as courses on different areas of psychological intervention, such as psychoanalysis.

Emma is a warm and caring psychologist, who works hard to understand the whole picture when approaching psychological problems. In therapy, she encourages her patients to express themselves openly and freely, providing them with comprehensive and reflective guidance focused on improvement and wellbeing.

Daniel verhuisde toen hij acht jaar oud was uit Nederland naar Spanje met zijn ouders en zijn twee zusjes en broertje, om een nieuw avontuur te beginnen. Hoewel hij de taal snel onder de knie kreeg, vond hij het als Third Culture Kid niet makkelijk om zich aan zijn nieuwe omgeving aan te passen. Hij werd gepest op school en werd daardoor in contact gebracht met lijden en afwijzing, wat hem dichter bij zijn roeping als psycholoog bracht.

Omdat hij Amerikaanse familie heeft, maakt Engels deel uit van zijn familiebetrekkingen. Hij benutte elke gelegenheid om de taal te oefenen, zoals een uitwisselingsreis naar Chicago toen hij 17 jaar oud was. Voordat hij aan zijn opleiding begon, wilde Daniel de wereld verkennen. Hij nam deel aan verschillende zendingsscholen van de Evangelische Kerk in India en Oeganda. Deze reizen boden hem een unieke gelegenheid om dichter bij andere culturen te komen en te leren samenleven, verschillen te overbruggen en manieren te vinden om te communiceren. Hij nam een belangrijk besluit: het proberen om te leven zoals de mensen leven in het land van bestemming. Zo wende hij in India aan een pittig ontbijt en reisde meer dan 2000 km met de trein. India was een land waarvan hij de gastvrijheid en het vermogen om verschillende culturen te verwelkomen bewonderde.

Na zijn terugkeer deed hij een Bachelors degree in psychologie via de Complutense Universiteit in Madrid. Hij liep stage bij de Stichting ANAR, die kinderen en tieners helpt; daar leerde hij om in een veelzijdig team te werken en verstevigde hij zijn therapeutische vaardigheden. Hij kreeg een Erasmus-beurs om het derde jaar aan de Universiteit in Warwick te studeren, waar hij omringd was door studenten van over de hele wereld. Tijdens zijn verblijf in het Engeland legde hij contacten die hem ertoe aanzetten na zijn studie terug te keren naar de West Midlands (Coventry) waar hij ongeveer een jaar woonde en werkte. Dit was zijn eerste buitenlandse ervaring als expat, met de bijbehorende uitdagingen van aanpassing aan nieuwe gewoonten en tijdschema’s, het weg zijn van familie en het opbouwen van nieuwe vriendschappen.

Hij hervatte zijn opleiding door een postgraduate in integratieve psychotherapie, “Experto en Psicoterapia Integradora (Nivel Básico)”, te studeren aan de Universiteit van Alcalá, waardoor hij verschillende theorieën en therapeutische scholen kon onderzoeken. Het zou de Systeemtherapie zijn wat hem het meest interesseerde. Het bood een andere kijk op relaties, in het bijzonder de ontdekking dat een relatieprobleem in stand kan worden gehouden dankzij moeilijk op te geven evenwichten. Daarom was zijn volgende stap het behalen van een Master in Gezins- en Relatietherapie, via de Complutense Universiteit in Madrid. Voor Daniel, als therapeut, is het essentieel dat iedereen zich gehoord voelt en zich bewust is dat er niet alleen één waarheid is, maar meerdere versies. Systeemtherapie helpt om te begrijpen dat wat «normaal» lijkt te zijn afhankelijk is van onze ervaringen en sleutelfiguren. Bij problemen is het belangrijk om over ieders behoeften te praten waarbij het over en weer verwijten wordt vermeden.

Tenslotte behaalde hij de Master in “Psicología General Sanitaria” aan het Centro Universitario Cardenal Cisneros, verbonden aan de Universiteit van Alcalá. Hij liep meer dan 9 maanden stage in het centrum voor NB-psychologie. In die tijd leerde hij de onderliggende oorzaken beter kennen van angst als fysiek/ mentaal verschijnsel, van activering van lichaams- en mentale alarmen en van depressie met zijn negatieve overtuigingen en schema’s.

Daniel gelooft dat psychologie gezonde relaties en genezing bevordert; in humor als een middel dat versterkt en weerstand geeft. Hij zet zich in om zijn patiënten te helpen ontdekken hoe ze vollediger kunnen leven en gelooft dat we niet bepaald worden door een script, maar dat onze verhalen kunnen worden herschreven en herontdekt.

Getrouwd met een Braziliaanse vrouw, kent hij uit zijn eigen ervaring de uitdagingen van een bicultureel huwelijk.

Daniel moved at the age of eight from the Netherlands to Spain with his family, parents and three siblings, to start a new adventure. Although he was quick to adapt to the language, as a Third Culture Kid he did not find it easy to adapt to his new environment. The challenge of undergoing bullying made him connect with suffering and rejection, bringing him closer to his vocation as a psychologist.

Having American uncles and cousins, English is part of his family relationships, and he always benefited every opportunity to practice it, such as an exchange to Chicago at the age of 17. Before embarking on his academic path, Daniel wanted to discover the world. He participated in several missionary schools through the Evangelical Church in India and Uganda. Both trips offered him a unique opportunity to get closer to other cultures and learn to live together while bridging differences and finding ways to communicate. He made a very important decision: to try to live as they live in the country of destination and so, in India he had spiced food for breakfast and traveled over 2000 kms by train. It was a country of which he admired its hospitality and the ability to welcome different cultures.

Upon his return, he obtained a graduate degree in Psychology at the Complutense University of Madrid. He completed his internship at the ANAR Foundation, a psychological helpline for children and teens, where he learned to work in a multidisciplinary team and consolidated his therapeutic skills. He obtained an Erasmus scholarship to study his third year abroad at the University of Warwick; a place where he was surrounded by students from all over the world. During his time in the United Kingdom, he made connections that encouraged him to return, after finishing his degree, to the West Midlands (Coventry) where he lived and worked for about a year. This was his first experience as an expat adult with its challenges of adapting to customs and schedules, being far from family and making new friendships.

He resumed his training through a postgraduate course in Integrative Psychotherapy (basic expert level) through the University of Alcalá, which allowed him to explore different theories and therapeutic schools. It would be systemic family therapy that would spark his interest the most, as it provided a different vision of relationships, allowing him to discover that a problem can be maintained thanks to balances that are difficult to abandon. That explained that his next training step would be to do a master’s degree in Family and Couple Therapy, through the Complutense University of Madrid. For Daniel, as a therapist, it is essential that everyone feels heard and for all to be aware that there is not only one truth, but several versions. Systemic therapy helps to understand that what can be considered ‘normal’ depends on our experiences and role models and how when there are problems it is important to talk about our needs and abandon the blame game.

Finally, he fulfilled the remaining requirements to work as a psychologist through a master’s degree in General Health Psychology through the Centro Universitario Cardenal Cisneros, affiliated to the University of Alcalá. He did his internship at the psychological center from NB Psicología for a period of over 9 months. During this time, he got a better grasp of the roots of anxiety as a physical (such as the triggering of body alarms) and mental phenomenon, and depression with its related negative beliefs and schemas.

Daniel believes in a psychology that promotes healthy relationships and the repair of wounds; in humor as a tool that strengthens and provides resilience. He is committed to enabling his patients to discover how to live more fully and believes that we are not determined by a script, but that our stories can be rewritten and rediscovered. 

Married to a Brazilian woman, he knows firsthand of the challenges of a bicultural marriage. 

Born in Romania, Alina was always clear that she wanted to find a profession where she could make an impact on society. This led her to explore opportunities beyond her borders at the age of 16. She arrived in Spain without previously knowing the language, and after taking her only three months to learn it, she discovered that the profession she was looking for was going to be speech therapist.

While studying the Degree in Speech Therapy at the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM), Alina combined her studies with another of her great vocations, childcare, where she had the opportunity to identify for the first time the importance of language development and communication at an early age. For this reason, she decided to specialize in developmental and learning disorders. Later, she would complete his training in this area by obtaining the Master’s Degree in Early Intervention at the UCM.

However, what truly marked Alina’s professional future was her brother, who from a young age showed serious difficulties with social interaction and the use of language. Her curiosity and desire to deepen her knowledge made her do the university internship at the Leo Kanner Special Education College of the Association of Parents of People with Autism (APNA), where she later worked for 4 years. She combined this work with collaborations as a speech therapist for different Early Care Centers and with speech therapy services at home with patients with speech, language, literacy and atypical swallowing disorders.

Throughout this stage, Alina completed the Post Graduate Degree in Intervention in Autism Spectrum Disorder by the UNED and became one of the first certified therapists in Spain in the PACT methodology (Pediatric Autism Communication Therapy), a specific communication therapy for children with autism or needs in the field of social communication developed at the University of Manchester.

Her passion for the profession of speech therapist prompted her to share her knowledge by participating as a teacher in the APNA ASD Specialization Course and tutoring future professionals during their university internships.

She currently combines her clinical work as a bilingual speech therapist at SINEWS with her psychopedagogical labor at Kings College Soto de Viñuelas, where she has acquired conscience of the academic impact that language difficulties have.