Team coordinator
Luis Ángel Saúl
PhD and master’s degree in psychotherapy interventions from the University of Salamanca, Spain. He is a certified clinical psychologist and works as an associate professor at the National Distance Education University (UNED) in Madrid, Spain. He has experience of more than 20 years in research, with an extensive production of scientific articles. Its main area of application has been the evaluation of personal meanings of clinical subjects and the identification of cognitive conflicts. He has made important contributions in the field of clinical psychology when it comes to highlighting the role of different cognitive conflicts in maintaining the subject’s psychological problems and exploring the “internal coherence”, from the subject’s own meanings, of therapeutic non-change, even when the subject wants such a change. Likewise, he has made more than a hundred presentations at national and international conferences and collaborated in several funded research projects. The latest of them on Psychological treatment of depression in women with fibromyalgia and Cognitive therapy for unipolar depression: efficacy of a therapy focused on implicative dilemmas, in which the evaluation protocol of the Repertory Grid Technique (TR) is used.
He is the director of the UNED Constructivist Research Group (GICUNED). A multidisciplinary group, which includes clinical psychologists, methodologists, computer engineers, and health workers from the field of medicine and nursing.
Research team
Rubén Heradio Gil
He holds a Ph.D. in Software and Systems Engineering at the National Distance Education University (UNED) in Madrid (Spain), where he works as a Full Professor. With more than twenty years of experience, he has participated in 12 research projects, being the Principal Investigator of 3 of them, advised 6 doctoral theses, and published 43 “relevant” papers (according to the ANECA criteria). His research interests are focused on Software Engineering (particularly formal and statistical methods) and the application of new technologies to online education. He has carried out 5 post-doctoral research stays at Oxford University (UK), the Software Engineering Institute (Carnegie Mellon University, USA), and Johannes Kepler University Linz (Austria).
He is the head of the Software and Systems Engineering Research Group (GISS): http://www.issi.uned.es/giss
Alejandro Sanfeliciano Calvo
Student within the doctoral program in Health Psychology at UNED. At this moment he is working on his thesis that deals with the possible applications of the Psychology of Personal Constructs and the Grid Technique on the interpersonal reality of individuals, paying special attention to unconventional relational models (Polyamory and Non-monogamies).
He is Degree in Psychology from UNED and obtained a Master’s Degree in Psychology Research at the same university within the line of social construction of knowledge. Passionate about the methodological and mathematical aspects of psychology, he became interested in psychometrics; specifically, he opted for delving into the Grid Technique, and the multivariate analysis on which this technique is based.
Currently, within GICUNED, he is working on a project to create training videos around the use of the R program and the OpenRepGrid package. Very useful programming environments for those who want to perform statistical analysis from a constructivist paradigm.
Adrián Barbero Rubio
Teacher and researcher at the National University of Distance Education (UNED, Madrid). Teacher and therapist in Madrid Institute of Contextual Psychology.
I am an expert in the analysis of clinical interaction and application of the contextual model for training professionals. I am an enthusiast of the experimental analysis of complex behaviors, following the line of research on the regulation of behavior from the Relational Frame Theory (TMR-RFT) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and its implication in psychopathologies. Its objective is to enhance the connection of research with psychological care and training, on the one hand, analyzing, optimizing and applying therapeutic interactions and, on the other hand, providing up-to-date and quality training.
My training (Master of excellence, Visiting Scholar at UCLA and doctorate), teaching and research has been linked to the area of Personality, Evaluation and Psychological Treatment and, specifically, to the specialty of advances and techniques of Contextual Therapies for prevention and Health promotion.
My ultimate objective is focused on optimizing individual and group functioning in clinical, educational and sports settings.
Javier Ibias Martín
PhD in Psychology with a master’s degree in Methodology of Behavioral and Health Sciences.
I collaborated as an undergraduate student at the Animal Behavior Laboratory of the Faculty of Psychology of the UNED since 2005. Later, I obtained a PhD fellowship in 2010, and carried out the experiments of my doctoral thesis, that is based on the development and maintenance of excessive patterns of behavior using rodents as animal models.
Due to my training in Methodology, I acquired advanced skills in research methods and experimental design, as well as quantitative or qualitative data analysis, and wide experience in Meta Analysis, Psychometry, and Clinical Epidemiology, among other subjects.
I also received additional training in advanced mathematical models applied to behavior during my PhD training after several academic stays at the Animal Behavior Laboratory of the Arizona State University (ASU), in Phoenix, Arizona, USA, and at the School of Psychology from the University of Minho, in Braga, Portugal.
After obtaining my PhD degree, I completed my postdoctoral training between 2016 and 2018 working on a project funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), at the Western University of Health Sciences, in Pomona, California, USA, where I investigated mechanisms associated with the interaction between diabetes and addiction to nicotine in animal models under the supervision of Professor Arbi Nazarian.
In August 2018, I was hired by the faculty of Psychology of UNED, in Madrid, Spain, as an Assistant Professor of the department of Methodology of Behavioral Sciences, where I am developing my own research line on modeling data from the Experimental Analysis of Behavior and Meta Analysis.
José Antonio González del Puerto
PhD Student in health psychology (UNED)
Researcher with a FPU predoctoral contract in the Department of Social and Organizational Psychology of UNED.
Degree in Psychology by UNED (2019).
Higher Telecommunications Engineer from UPM (1995).
Marta Segura Valverde
Specialist in Clinical Psychology through Spanish Resident Psychologist (PIR)
PhD in Clinical and Health Psychology, Master’s Degrees in Research Psychology and Child Psychology. Equally she has accomplished trainings like Specialist in Psychotherapeutic Intervention and Expert in Brief Psychotherapy, as well as an Expert in Psychosomatic Medicine and Health Psychology and Eating Disorders. She supplements her formation with different expert courses oriented to clinical practice.
Currently, she exercises as Clinical Adjunct Psychology in the Psychiatric service General Hospital of Villalba. She develops her assistance activity with the adult population in external service, as well as in the consult and liaison psychology programs of psycho-oncology, obesity and Bariatric surgery, cardiac rehabilitation, intensive care, and perinatal care. She is Associate Professor of CCSS in Personality, Assessment and Clinical Psychology (UCM), and External Collaborating Professor in UNED.
Her scientific activity is framed in research group MEmind Study Group (ISS Jimenez Díaz Foundation) and GICUNED (UNED). As part of GICUNED she has promote clinical assessment through study and dissemination of the Body Repertory Grid Technique, specifically in woman with breast cancer. At the present time she participates in the exploration of personal meanings and cognitive conflicts involved in the maintenance healthy lifestyle habits in obese people. Also, she explores the change in personal meanings and cognitive structure in bariatric surgery patients, and influence of personal constructs systems on breastfeeding in pregnant mothers.
Juan Rafael Perea Luque
He develops his academic research part-time. In Psychology field his scientific activity is framed in constructivist psychology, mainly in the personal meaning analysis through repertory grid technique application, with a special interest in the study of dynamic assessment and evolution (change analysis).
PhD in Sciences of Religion by Complutense University in Madrid, consequence about his coincident/hybrid interest between Psychology and Anthropology.
His academic training with humanistic character agglutinates Bachelor’s Degree in Social and Cultural Anthropology by UNED, as well as a Bachelor’s Degree Psychological (clinical psychology specialty) by the same institution.
He makes compatible a scientific-technical orientation in the formal sciences field by having a Degree in Mathematics (statistic specialty) by UNED, and in the same discipline Master’s Degree in Advances Mathematics (operative research and statistic specialty) by the same university.
Initially with a professional career oriented in the industrial sector, he has extensive training in different areas. Mainly highlighting among others, the engineering of industrial processes as Industrial Technical Engineer in Electricity – Industrial Electronics from the University of Malaga. In the field of informatics or computer science, he is a Technical Engineer in Computer Systems also from the university of Malaga, and in more specific disciplines such as environmental field is Master’s Degree in Environmental Management for Ecological Research Institute. Also, in the field of energy management is a specialist in Management and Business Energy Audit at the Polytechnic University of Madrid.
Currently his professional career is developed in the field of management, specifically in the management of real estate assets, specifically shopping centres, and functionally in the areas of direction and management. With extensive and specific training in this field, among others, Executive Master Business Administration (Executive-MBA) by the Business School Business Institute.
Ernesto Aranda Escolástico
He received his M.S. degree in physics from the Complutense University of Madrid in 2013. He received the second M.S. (the most outstanding graduate award) and the Ph.D. (best Ph.D. thesis award, international mention) in Systems and Control Engineering at UNED in 2014 and 2018, respectively. Currently, he works as Associate Professor in the Department of Software Engineering and Computer Systems of the UNED.
His research career is focused on the field of automation and control systems. Specifically, he has worked on networked control systems and cyber-physical systems, developing event-based control and multi-rate control strategies. He has also studied the experimental applications of these strategies, especially in nonlinear and underactuated systems. He has worked on 8 research projects related to these lines of work, producing more than 30 scientific publications, including 17 articles in journals indexed by the JCR.
He has carried out different research stays in international institutions, including the Eindhoven University of Technology (The Netherlands), the University of California – San Diego (USA), and the University of Brescia (Italy).
María de los Ángeles López González
PhD M. Ángeles López-González, is Associate Professor in Social Psychology department from URJC Psychology. Previously, she has performed docent positions in the Autónoma University Space of Madrid, in the Pontificia University of Comillas and UNED.
She is PhD by UNED (2016) with Extraordinary Doctorate Award, also she has a Master’s Degree in Research Psychology (2011), University Specialist in Cognitive- Constructivist Psychotherapeutic Intervention (2012). She holds an Advanced Studies Diploma (DEA, 2010), and Diploma of Tutor of the European Higher Education Area (2010), after obtaining a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology and having the 1st cycle of the degree in Medicine and Surgery.
Her research lines include topics such as violence in dating relationship (agents and viewers), the design of systematic and methodological reviews of bibliometric analysis in health studies and social problems, as well as cognitive index assessment through Repertory Grid applied in social problems. Take part of different research competitive projects.
She has taught subjects in the Degrees in Psychology, Social Work, Early Childhood Education, Primary Education, Sociology, Anthropology, Social Education, in the corresponding Bachelor’s degrees, as well as in postgraduate degrees such as the Master Degree in General Health Psychology from the UNED, the Master Degree in Psychology of the Education of the UAM or the International Master of Specialized Training of Teachers in Ecuador of the UNED, where he has directed a score of Final Master’s Projects. Currently, she co-directs five Doctoral Theses on her lines of research.
Her commitment to teaching innovation and her innovative experience has led her to give numerous training actions aimed at the PDI and to be the Coordinator of the Research Networks in Teaching Innovation of the UNED (2012-2014), within the University Institute of Distance Education attached to the Vice-rectorate for Quality and Innovation. She has collaborated in numerous innovation projects on digital education and, more recently, on the use of academic infographics in the classroom, being part of the UNED GIDMID3.0 Innovation Group.
María Jesús Domínguez Simón
She is a Nurse and Midwife and she has requested the specialty in community nursing.
PhD Student in Health Psychology program at UNED, she researches in personal meaning of pregnant people in relation to breastfeeding.
She currently works as a midwife in 12 Octubre Hospital in Madrid. She is resident tutor and a docent at the Midwifes teaching unity of the Community of Madrid.
She is a vocal member of National Commission of the Specialist Midwifes of the Health Ministry and president of the Federation of Associations of Midwives in Spain (FAME).
She has extensive experience in health research, with a large contribution in national and international conferences and papers/publications in scientific journals.
Javier González Encinas
Javier González Encinas is a PhD in Health Psychology (UNED) who practices private practice in Cáceres in his centre with health licensing authorization 10101263. He graduated in Health Psychology with a specialty in clinical practice in 2013. At the same time, he completed the University Expert in Advanced Methods in Applied Statistics from the UNED foundation. Later, he completed the Master’s Degree in Psychological Research, finishing it that same year 2014 with the final master’s thesis entitled “Study of the relationship between the HEXACO personality model, academic performance and subjective well-being in adolescents”. He recently got a doctorate with the work “Self-characterization Technique: study of reliability, consistency measures, convergence with the grid technique and ability to establish individual differences”.
His field of interest is the study of narratives, as well as addiction to video games, having participated as a docent in different dissemination events and collaborating with the Junta de Extremadura in training activities.
Currently, he combines private practice since 2014 with secretarial work for the Revista de Psicoterapia since 2018. Since 2017, he has collaborated as a psychotherapist for people affected by gambling addiction in the ONG Association of Gamblers in Rehabilitation (AJER) in Plasencia, the town where resides.
Marina Tejo Montilla
Health Psychologist graduated with a specialization in Health Psychology and Intervention in Mental and Behavioral Disorders from the National Distance Education University (UNED). Master’s degree in General Health Psychology from Alfonso X el Sabio University (UAX), where she focused her research on adolescence and information and communication technologies (ICTs). Specialized in insomnia, tension headaches, stress, and self-esteem issues. Currently pursuing a doctorate in Health Psychology at UNED and collaborating with the constructivist research group (R&D&I) at UNED, with a focus on using Artificial Intelligence as an innovative tool in the field of psychology.
In her professional career, she has experience in business management and digital marketing, having led the Marketing and CRM department for over 10 years in private organizations. She has also coordinated educational projects in collaboration with public entities such as the Ministry of Education, the State Public Employment Service (SEPE), and the Tripartite Foundation. Currently serving as the CEO of the Mente en Calma® health centers and working actively as a health psychologist since 2019.
She is a multidisciplinary professional committed to psychology, innovation, and improving people’s quality of life on a large scale. She is also passionate about physics and computer science.
Vicente Bay Alarcón
Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology with clinic specialist, official Master’s Degree in 3rd therapies generation, Master’s Degree in Research Psychology, Specialist Diploma in Legal and Forensic Psychology.
PhD student in Personality and Health Psychology, with a thesis dedicated to study of self in a constructivist manner, following the Kelly’s Personal Constructs Psychology .
He has complementary training in Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy, Mindfulness, Systemic Family Therapy, Expert in therapies with virtual reality, online psychological intervention, Mentalization Based Therapy.
Currently, he develops his activity in private practice as a Psychologist with Health Licensing and Forensic Specialist, with a therapeutic model focused on integrative therapy oriented by personality.
Estefanía Barrado Mariscal
Estefanía holds a Bachellor’s Degree in Psychology by UNED and she studied the Master’s Degree in Research Psychology in the same University. She also has several postgraduate courses accredited by the Official College of Psychologists of Madrid as: specialist in psychotherapy with child and adolescent, specialist in psychodrama, expert in personality disorder and advanced training in clinical psychodiagnostics in projective techniques.
She develops her career as Psychology and Psychotherapist in health area in her private consult and she is accredited by the Official College of Psychologists of Aragón. In her professional career she has collaborated with different entities such as Caritas, Proyecto Hombre, the Unit of Psychiatry of the University Clinical Hospital Lozano Blesa and in educational institutions such as IES Rigo Gállego in Zaragoza. In her docent activity she is Associated Professor in Zaragoza University in Personality, Assessment, and psychological treatment, teaching subjects of the Degree in Psychology, the degree in Children’s Teaching and Master’s Degree in General Health Psychology.
Currently, she is doing a Doctorate in Health Psychology at UNED investigating the exploration of the world of meanings in patients who attend psychotherapy in relation to George Kelly’s Grid Technique and his Personal Constructs Theory.
Juan Herrán Alonso
Juan Herran-Alonso holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology and a Master’s Degree in Psychology Research from UNED (Spain). He also completed a Post-Graduate Diploma in Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy for depression and anxiety at the University of Southampton (UK). Currently, he is undertaking a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire (UK). He has extensive experience in various areas of clinical work such as psychological intervention in intellectual disabilities, children, adolescents and adults, multidisciplinary evaluation of neurodevelopmental disorders, and applied functional analysis.
He has a special interest in the area of cognitive structure within Kelly’s Personal Construct Theory, and has published several papers on the predictive and construct validity of various cognitive differentiation indices derived from repertory grids. For future projects, Mr Herran-Alonso is interested in developing valid measures of the cognitive integration process, as well as in working towards a unified model of the structure of construct systems, susceptible of computer simulation.
Pedro Ramírez Lafuente
Pedro Ramírez Lafuente holds a Bachellor’s Degree in Psychologist by Complutense University in Madrid, and Master’s Degree in Psychology Research by UNED. He is currently an associate professor at the Cardenal Cisneros University Centre, attached to the University of Alcalá, where he teaches the subjects of Addiction Psychology (degree in Psychology) and Drug Addiction Prevention (degree in Social Education). He is also a teacher in the General Health Psychology Master Degree and directs 4 Final Degree Projects.
His professional experience, both in the public and private spheres, has focused on working with minors and families in different contexts, highlighting the attention to families with problems of addictions, multi-problems, intra-family violence and child abuse. He has worked as a Psychologist and Deputy Director of the Child Care Centre (CAI) of the Madrid City Council, Psychologist of the Comprehensive Family Attention Service (SAIF) of the Las Rozas City Council of Madrid and Psychologist of the Family Intervention Service (SIF ) of the Mancomunidad 2016. Previously, he has worked as a Psychologist and coordinator of an outpatient centre for the treatment of Addictions, a Psychologist in the Specialist Group on Addictive Behaviours (GECA) and as a Psychologist of the Psychological Care Service of the University School of Technical Architecture of the Polytechnic University of Madrid (EUAT-UPM).
Marlena Antohi Zarzu
Marlena is a Psychologist with health qualification and develops her activity mainly in the clinical and health areas in her private practice, also collaborating as an external psychotherapist in the Applied Psychology Service of the UNED and in the Pichón Riviére Service. Her psychotherapeutic approach is eclectic, integrating psychodynamic, psychoanalytic, humanist and constructivist theories, among others.
Regarding the docent areas, she is a professor-tutor of Psychological Evaluation in an associated Centre of the UNED Madrid, coordinator and speaker in different courses of University Extension of the UNED, and professor in the course of Expert in Psychotherapeutic Intervention in Gender Violence of the AEFDP.
Marlena has studied a Bachellor’s Degree in Psychology from the UNED and the Official Master’s Degree in Psychology Research at the same University. She also has several postgraduate degrees such as: Specialist in Psychotherapy with Children and Adolescents, and Expert in: Group Psychotherapy, Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, Couples Therapy, Personality Disorders, Diagnostic Evaluation through Projective Techniques, Psychotherapeutic Intervention in gender violence.
He is currently doing a PhD in Health Psychology at UNED, investigating the relationship between attachment and the construction of internal models of the Self and The Other, is a member of the Editorial Board of the Intersubjective Journal and has participated in several Psychology congresses where he has presented works related to his doctoral thesis and clinical practice.
María Caridad Carrascosa Salmoral
Licenced in Medicine and Surgery at the medical school from the University of Seville. I am registered as a general practitioner (Certification from the spanish ministry of health). I have been working as a General Practices (GP) for more than 25 years in the National Health System. Due to my concern for a fully comprehensive and holistic patient care I studied psychosomatic medicine (San Jorge University: Expertise in Psychosomatic Medicine and Clinical Psychology), which has led me to develop into psychological and social aspects of the person, with greater insight in the causes of illness and their consequences with a holistic, integral and humane therapeutic approach. I had Degree in Psychology from National Distance Education University (UNED) in Madrid and I have complemented the degree with a Master of Brief Psychotherapy, Specialisation in Psychotherapy and Psychodrama, Couples and Family Therapy, among others.
As a teacher, I have trained GP and Medical undergraduates at the Medical School from the University of Alcala. I also teach in the Psychosomatic Clinic at the Association for the promotion and development of psychotherapy.
As a researcher I have participated in various multicenter studies, highlighting the PsiCAP study for the Treatment of emotional disorders in Primary Health Care.
Currently I’m developing a career as a Psychotherapist in the health area in private consultation.
Have become a member of GICUNED group since June 2020.
Carlos Moyano Fabian
Degree in Psychology and student of Master’s Degree in Psychology Research.
He has studied, together with other collaborators, the dilemmatic constructs to determine the absence of cognitive conflicts in these types of constructs, as well as the importance of these as a function of age.
Currently, he is investigating the application of the grid technique in the field of organizational psychology, by studying the personal constructs associated with burnout or being burned out at work during the COVID-19 pandemic.