Short bio

I graduated from the Universitat de Barcelona (UB) in 1984 and obtained a scholarship from the Ministry of Education and Science to complete the doctorate with the thesis titled "Anàlisi de construccions personals en texts de significació psicològica" (1988) directed by Dr. Manuel Villegas. During this period I did clinical training in existential psychotherapy and in systemic family therapy (Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau). In 1987, I was awarded the Young Investigator Award by the Institute for Personal Construct Psychology. In the 1988-89 academic year, I held a postdoctoral position at Memphis State University (now University of Memphis) in collaboration with Dr. Robert Neimeyer. With another ministerial scholarship, I returned to the UB, at the Department of Personality, Assessment and Psychological Treatments (currently merged into the Clinical Psychology and Psychobiology department) where I obtained the position of Associate Professor (tenure) in 1992 and became Full Professor in 2011. Since then, I teach undergraduate courses on psychotherapy, clinical psychology and systemic family intervention, and in a variety of master programs of the Faculty of Psychology (UB).

The primary focus of my research has been to advance the understanding of interpersonal construing and to further the knowledge of its role in health (both mental and physical) and in the process of psychotherapy. To this aim, personal construct and self-regulation theories have been important sources of inspiration for implementation, both in research and clinical practice. My work is conducted using methods derived from these approaches such as textual analysis and the Repertory Grid Technique (RGT). The latter is an instrument that enables the practitioner to better grasp the cognitive structures used by the individual to ascribe personal meanings to ongoing events. One of my main contributions to the existing literature was the identification of conflicts in the cognitive structure of subjects using the RGT. Such conflicts turn into personal dilemmas blocking people's development or progress either in life or in psychotherapy.

Recently, I led the development of Explore Your Meanings (EYME) (enllaç a www.eyme-vr.com), a digital platfrom based on the RGT that performs the interview in an automated way and allows to explore self-identity through the person’s constructs with a 3D navigable map and also suing Virtual Reality. This process, aided by a psychotherapist, boosts self-awareness, improves reflective functioning, and provides orientations for the process of personal change.

Institutional responsibilities 

Coordinator of the Multicenter Dilema Project Management of Masters degrees and other postgraduate courses:

• Director of the  Master of Social Cognitive Therapy (UB)
• Director of the  Expert in Clinical Hypnosis postgraduate course (UB)
• Director (with Mr. Antoni Grau Touriño and Ms. Montse Sánchez Povedano) of the Master of Psychological Intervention in Eating Disorders and Obesity (IL3/UB)
• Director (with Dr. Adrián Montesano) of the  Master of Sexual and Couple Therapy (UB)

Website on the Psychology of Personal Constructs (in Spanish) 

Teaching member of the  Spanish Association of Cognitive Psychotherapies (ASEPCO) 

Creator (with J. M. Cornejo & E. Laso) of the RECORD software for statistical analysis of the Repertory Grid Technique (GRIDCOR, English version).