Pedro Penuela

I work with an approach called Psychodynamic psychotherapy. This approach can be understood as a contemporary development of post-freudian psychoanalysis. The psychodynamic approach is an evidence-based, depth oriented type of therapy, that focuses on unconscious processes, personal history/story and the impact of constitutive experiences (especially from the childhood) in the way we act, feel and conceive life and especially in relational patterns that tend to repeat throughout our lifes. This type of therapy is mostly based on opening a space for the patient to freely speak and be carefully and attentively listened by another living and sensitive human being. In this setting, based on attentive listening, the patient can also listen to him/her/themself(ves) and have a space to meet and perceive their current way of speaking, feeling, being with others, remembering and telling their story and many other aspects of how they are. More than focusing on healing or eliminating symptoms as fast as possible, this approach connects symptoms and gripes to the unique, singular history/story of each person, aiming to understand and transform more broadly the connections between specific symptoms, issues and modes of suffering to the patient's life experiences. In this approach, therapists pay special attention to the way the patient experiences and experienced care, love, affection and other fundamental human complexities throughout their life. Another central aspect of the psychodynamic approach is the work through "transference". Transference is a psychoanalytic concept that names the tendency we humans have to repeat our basic relational patterns with the therapist, inside the therapeutic setting. Thus, more than a work based only on intellectual understanding and reflection, the psychodynamic approach also works through the emotions, conflicts, feelings and concrete situations that happen in the relationship between patient and therapist, connecting all of them to the patients questions and story. In short, the psychodynamic approach is a type of approach that allows both therapist and patient to clearly grasp into patterns that usually repeat in the patient's life in a way that is unconscious, not clearly perceived by the patient, but that throughout time reveals itself in the therapeutic relation and through the different experiences that the patient reports. I personally connect my studies and experience with psychodynamic psychotherapy (both as a therapist and as a patient for many years) to recent studies and research regarding trauma (highlighting the work of Gabor Mate and Bessel Van Der Kolk), which allows us to understand trauma in a broad way, not only as specific deeply disturbing experiences but also as long term patterns of relationships that cause distress and deep disconnection of basic human needs, to the point of producing chronic unconscious modes of body response and coping mechanisms.

Working in private clinic with individual psychotherapy since 2012 and through online format since 2020. Worked also as an educator and families counselor at a Kindergarten (from 2008 to 2012), in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Currently also working as a dance and bodywork teacher in workshops and regular classes in different cities in Europe and South America.

Degree in Psychology - University of Sao Paulo (Brazil) Masters Degree in Clinical Psychology - University of Sao Paulo (Brazil) Doctorate (PhD) in Arts - University of Sao Paulo (Brazil) Free courses regarding psychodynamic psychotherapy and trauma oriented studies.