Fundação Romão de Sousa | Casa de Alba Team

João G. Pereira

Clinical Director

João G. Pereira is a psychologist and psychotherapist. He has a PhD in Counseling Psychology and Psychotherapy from Middlesex University and the Metanoia Institute in London. He is a full member of the Order of Portuguese Psychologists with a specialist degree and advanced specialty.
With basic training in forensic psychology, he later turned to clinical and counseling psychology. He did postgraduate training in cognitive and constructivist psychotherapy models at the Mensalus Institute in Barcelona and later trained as a psychotherapist in the UK, where he worked for several years.
With extensive experience in the field of drug addiction, he has worked with young people and children at risk in non-governmental organizations in Cambridge and Norwich, and with adults in substitution treatment in state clinics in London. From 2007 to 2013 he gained experience in the British National Health Service (NHS) where he developed his PhD project on Mentalization Based Treatment.
He has worked with severe mental health disorders in multi-disciplinary teams and it was at this stage that he undertook specialist training at the Anna Freud Centre and University College London. He is a psychotherapist accredited by the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP), a Chartered Member of the British Psychological Society (BPS), accredited by the British Psychoanalytic Council as an MBT Therapist and holds the European Certificate in Psychotherapy from the European Association for Psychotherapy (EAP). He was a visiting assistant professor at the University of Évora for two years and has also taught at the University of East London (UEL), Middlesex University and the Metanoia Institute in London, with whom he still collaborates as a supervisor and lecturer on PhD and Masters courses.
In Portugal, he has collaborated as a Post-Doc Researcher at the Institute of Philosophy (IFILNOVA) of the New University of Lisbon and in various projects linked to Mental Health. He is a trainer on the theoretical and technical training course of the Portuguese Society of Groupanalysis and Group Analytical Psychotherapy and a member of the IPHA Group (International Practice Based Research Network for Personalizing Health Assessment). He founded the Democratic Therapeutic Communities model in Portugal with the “Casa de Alba” project and is currently President of INDTC-RP, the International Network of Democratic Therepeutic Communities and Relational Practice. He introduced the Open Dialogue system to Portugal with the first pilot project funded by the Directorate-General for Health and the first training course. His work has been published in scientific journals and presented at national and international conferences. He is co-editor and author of the book “Schizophrenia and Common Sense” published by Springer-Nature and the book “The Neurobiology-Psychotherapy-Pharmacology Intervention Triangle” published by Vernon Press.

He has been in private practice since 2006.

António Paiva

Psychiatrist

Medical Doctor and Consultant Psychiatrist at Casa de Alba, Therapeutic Community. António is the Clinical Director of the Psychiatric Unit in Barreiro Hospital (Lisbon). He is Member of the Portuguese Psychoanalytic Society.

Vitor Amorim Rodrigues

Psychiatrist

Victor has a Degree in Medicine, having completed a training internship in the Personality Disorders Clinic at Mount Sinai Hospital and Personality Disorders Institute in New York in 1993. He obtained the Specialist Degree in Psychiatry (Order of Physicians/Ministry of Health) in 1994 with a score of 19 points. Victor was President of the Board of the Association for the Recovery and Social Reintegration of Drug Addicts from 1997 to 1999 and was Clinical Director of the Therapeutic Community of Lages de Freiria. He later finished a Master’s Degree in Philosophy in 1998 and a postgraduate degree in Forensic Psychiatry and Psychology in 1999 at the then Instituto de Medicina Legal de Lisboa. Victor obtained the Degree of Consultant in Psychiatry (Ordem dos Médicos/Ministry of Health) in 2000. He was Director of the Navarro de Paiva Educational Center (Medical-Psychological Institute) of the IRS/Ministry of Justice (2000/2003) and gained experience (part-time) in prison psychiatry since 1996 and in forensic psychiatry since 1999 as a private consultant and as an expert in the Courts (work, civil and criminal areas). Victor is Founding Member and Supervisor of the Portuguese Society of Existential Psychotherapy, having also trained in Psychodynamic and Systemic Psychotherapy. He is Member of the Society of Existential Psychotherapy and Psychomaeutics of Rio de Janeiro. Victor has been a professor at ISPA since 1991 and is a regular contributor to the Department of Ongoing Training at ISPA-IU. He coordinates two training courses, in Clinic of Personality Disorders (10 editions) and Clinical Criminology (6 editions). He obtained the Diploma in Advanced Studies in Psychology (DEA) at the University of Extremadura in Spain (2010) and completed his Doctoral Thesis in Psychology at the same University (2014). He works in the fields of psychology, psychopathology and phenomenological and existential psychotherapies. His current research interests are in the area of personality disorders and criminal psychopathology.

Raquel Pedrosa

Médica Psiquiatra

Biography to be updated soon.

Cláudia Pedro

Clinical Psychologist

claudia.pedro@fundacaords.org

Cláudia Pedro is Clinical Psychologist at Casa de Alba. Master in Clinical and Health Psychology from the University of Évora. Developed the master’s thesis “How do people cope with health crises? An analysis of the manifestations of secondary coping on Twitter during a crisis “, and is currently writing an article in this field to be published in scientific journals in the area. He completed the curricular internship at the Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health (DPSM) of the Hospital do Espirito Santo in Évora where he developed several activities such as psychological follow-ups, psychological assessments, participation in the Child and Adolescent Psychology Unit with the hosting of meetings, team in psychiatry with the objective of reporting the cases that would need to be followed up in an outpatient clinic. During the internship he began to use the Individualized Patient Progress System (IPPS) program, presenting him to the team, resulting in the interest of using some members and passing the DPSM to collaborate with the University of Évora in collecting data through these “Custom Measures Therapeutic Gain Monitoring “, title of the presentation. He recently participated in the training “Mental Health – implementation of responses in the community” in the Psychiatric Hospital Center of Lisbon – Júlio de Matos Campus.

Jéssica Nunes

Psychomotricist

Biography to be updated soon.

Diogo Janeiro

Social Assistant

Diogo Janeiro is Social Worker at Casa de Alba. Degree in Applied Social Research and Post-Graduate in Safety and Hygiene and Health at Work.
She worked at Cercimb (Cooperativa dos Namidos Inadaptados de Moita and Barreiro), as a Senior Social Worker, working with disabled people and at-risk youth.
He held positions at the Municipality of Monforte, as Senior Technician of Sociology, and was responsible for an Equal Transnational Project, which sought to help the most disadvantaged, seeking to integrate them into the labor market and / or creating self-employment.
He worked as an External Trainer for several companies, both public and private, having contacted several target audiences.
He worked as a RVCC Technician at CNO, having followed processes of equivalence to Basic and Secondary education.
He held positions again in the City Council of Monforte, where he collaborated in the Communitarian Program of Delivery of Foodstuffs for the Careless (PCAAC), Municipal Card of the Elderly.
He was a collaborator of the Municipal Council of Sousel, where he held positions in the Social Action Office, participating in the various projects implemented. (Senior University, Social Shop, Memory Workshop, Gente Grande Grande Movement), updating of Social Diagnostics, among other projects.
He was a collaborator in the Technical Team of the Humanitarian Center of the Red Cross of Évora. He participated in the various responses promoted by the institution, such as: Teleassistance Service, Domiciliary Support Service, Social Assistance and Support, Food Supply Delivery, Social Refectory.