Andreia Martins

In my therapeutic approach, I begin by trying to fully understand your perception and emotions around the problematic areas that you or we together identify. We then start to unravel the precipitating factors/events that might have triggered the problems to arise. After that, we investigate the ingredients that have probably been there for a long time - usually as nuclear beliefs about yourself, others and the world, shaped around adverse childhood experiences - thus, identifying the predisposing factors of the problems. This is where a lot of emotional and experiential work might be necessary. It is also helpful to identify what are the maintaining factors, that is, what is it that you're feeling, thinking and doing that is reinforcing the negative cycle of the problems. Many times, it's the old strategies we have used to try to cope with the problem when we didn't know better that are in our own way today... so, we need to address eventual mal-adaptive coping strategies. Together we find ways of seeing and of being that are healthier and more aligned with your values, thus contributing to long-term mental flexibility and capacity to deal with obstacles with adaptative solutions and resilience. I really enjoy working with my clients as a team, whilst approaching their life experiences with curiosity and compassion - I truly believe this is what enables us to move towards positive change.

I've worked full time as a psychologist for six years within the specialized mental health services, at the Mental Health Clinic Isabel Henriques & GGZ-Instelling Annette Kalbfleisch. Recently, I've become a freelancer and since then I've been practicing as a clinical psychologist with the following companies: - Spring Health - Inscape Health And also under my own private practice.

I've concluded my Integrated Masters education in the University of Coimbra, Portugal, with a sub-specialization in Cognitive-Behavioral Interventions in Psychological Disorders and Health, in 2019. Since then, I've enrolled in several courses and training opportunities to consolidate and stregthen my therapeutic approach. Here's some of the most relevant ones: 2020 - Mindfulness interventions and somatic experience 2021 - Internal Family Systems course 2021 - EMDR level 1 2022 - Psychodrama course 2023 - Advanced Program in Couples Therapy - attachment model 2023 - Imagery rescripting, chairwork and managing inner critics in Schema Therapy 2024/2025 - Training Program in Schema Therapy