Our Team
Patrícia Pascoal
- Scientific Council
- Integrated PHD Researcher
I am an Associate Professor at Universidade Lusófona, where I have coordinated the undergraduate degree on Psychology and the Masters in Clinical and Health Psychology. Now, I co-coordinate the PhD. in Clinical Psychology and the Masters' in Sexology. I am a licensed cognitive-behavioural psychotherapist (CBT), and a CBT psychotherapy supervisor and sex therapists. I worked full-time for 10 years as a clinician in public mental health services, becoming progressively more involved in sexual health advocacy. Then, I developed a European PhD within a clinician-research framework, studying emotional, psychological and interpersonal factors associated with sexual health and problems which led me to an academic career. My main aim has been framed by social justice, and social awareness, and I research to contribute to inclusive informed clinical decisions and innovate by approaching neglected topics (e.g., positive outcomes in sexuality; lay people¿s meaning on sexual concepts) or neglected groups (e.g., LGB+, BDSM practitioners, emerging adults with chronic illness), sometimes within multidisciplinary teams (e.g., sexual health in migrant populations). This is reflected in more than 50 international publications. I won two grants as PI, both to study transdiagnostic factors and sexual distress, and both with clinical samples. One of these includes an internet-delivered intervention. I publish using diverse methods (e.g., World Café; Thematic analysis; psychometric studies) and/with diverse samples (e.g., health professionals, emerging adults, adults, couples) aiming for theoretical development and contributing to clinical guidelines (e.g., expert opinions, International Consultation). I promote young researchers' development in different contexts, namely supervising 9 PhD theses (nationally and Internationally) and contributing to their integration into international networks by adopting an Open Science Framework. I have maintained my clinical practice (and clinical training), in new developments related to CBT, namely the transdiagnostic approach to emotional problems. I coordinated the clinical sexology service in the Faculty of Psychology at the University of Lisbon for 9 years. It was a service directed at the community that supported clinical research and training of emerging clinicians and researchers; some have already pursued an academic career. I have published several papers on human sexuality, mainly using socio-cognitive models as a framework. My commitment to the reviewing process led me to receive prizes for being the best and outstanding reviewer and becoming the Deputy Editor in Chief of Sexual Medicine (open access) to expand publications in mental health. I also serve on several editorial boards (e.g., The Journal of Sex Research). I have edited books and contributed to national and international book chapters and encyclopaedia entries. I am a member of several funded research projects. I also serve regularly on the scientific committees of several international and national conferences . In the last years, I have participated in more than 100 Juris of post-graduate degrees (Master and Ph.D.) and supervised more than 40 Master Thesis. I supervise the sexuality service for young people with neurodevelopmental disorders at "Diferenças". I am the former President of the Portuguese Society of Clinical Sexology, a former Vice-Chair of the Education Committee of the International Society of Sexual Medicine, a full member of the International Academy of Sex Research and the Vice-chair of the Special Interest Group on "Worry Rumination and Negative Repetitive Thinking" at the European Association for Behavior and Cognitive Therapy and a member of two Cost Actions named Researcher Mental Health (ReMO) and European Network of Sexual Medicine (ENSM), and a member of the European Sex research network EUROSEX. I still act on the community. NOTE: The platform presents bugs and settings detrimental to those with long CVs.