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therapeutic approach

Socio-Historical Therapy

The context

what you feel is personal, and it also has a history and a place.

The context

what you feel is personal, and it also has a history and a place.

  • Confidential
  • Accepts insurance
  • Registered psychologists
  • ERS certified

What is it?

Socio-historical therapy comes from Vygotsky's psychology and was developed mainly in Brazil. It starts from the idea that a person is formed in relationships and in the concrete conditions they live in, and that feelings, thoughts and identity itself have a history, both personal and collective. The work is to understand how that history produced today's distress, so it stops looking like a purely individual flaw and can be changed.

Who it is for

For people who feel their distress is tied to the circumstances they live in: pressure and insecurity at work, migration and adapting to another country, discrimination, conflict between generations, or roles imposed on them. Also for anyone who wants to understand where their choices come from, not only change what they do.

What a session looks like

The conversation is about concrete life, what happens day to day, the relationships and places you have been through, and what each of them means to you. The therapist helps connect what you feel to the history that produced it, without taking away responsibility or the capacity to act. Online therapy in English, by video call, with an English-speaking therapist: for people in Portugal and for expats, wherever you live in Europe.

available approaches

Approaches we work with

This approach is not yet available at the clinic

You can explore the approaches we work with or book a first consultation. We will help you choose the support that best fits what brings you.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

Works on the link between thoughts, emotions and behaviour, with defined goals and tasks between sessions.

EMDR

Works on difficult memories with bilateral stimulation, without requiring you to recount everything in detail.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

Changes your relationship with difficult thoughts and feelings, so they stop deciding what you do.

Mindfulness

Trains attention to the present moment, inside therapy and with a defined clinical purpose.

Person-Centred Therapy

A space without judgement, led by you, where the relationship is the main instrument.

Psychodynamic Psychotherapy

Looks for the pattern behind the symptom, and the history that formed it.

Systemic Therapy

Works on relationships and the patterns between people, rather than looking for someone to blame.

Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT)

A short process focused on building the solution rather than analysing the problem.

Narrative Therapy

Works on the story we tell about ourselves, and separates the person from the problem.

Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT)

Treats emotion as information to work with, not a symptom to reduce.

quick booking

Book your appointment

What brings you here?
AI Assistant

Talk to Sofia

Describe how you feel, in your own words. Sofia takes care of the rest. No forms and no forced choices.

accepted insurers

Médis · Multicare · AdvanceCare · Fidelidade · Ageas · AXA · Allianz · Medicare · and others

The invoice for each consultation can be submitted to your health insurer for reimbursement, according to your plan. What you say in your sessions is confidential and never reaches the insurer.

faq

No. Recognising that context weighs on you does not take you out of the picture. The aim is to see clearly what comes from outside and what is yours, so you know where change is possible.

It is not a therapy about opinions. It is about your life, and about the conditions it happens in when they help explain what you feel. The therapist does not tell you what to think.

Systemic therapy looks mainly at the patterns between people in a family or couple. Socio-historical therapy widens the view to the life story and the social and cultural conditions that formed the person, and usually works in individual sessions.

No. You can book directly on our website or with Sofia, our virtual assistant, without any referral from your GP.

Online only for now, while our clinic in Cascais is being refurbished. We reopen in December, and in-person sessions return with it.

MB Way, Multibanco, debit or credit card, Apple Pay, Google Pay and Revolut Pay. You can also pay at the clinic itself, in cash or by card, leaving a card on file as a guarantee for the booking. Any credit on your account is applied automatically to your next session.

We have no direct billing agreement with insurers, but we work on a reimbursement basis with the main Portuguese insurers and with ADSE. The invoice for each consultation can be submitted for reimbursement, according to your plan.

Yes. The discount applies automatically, with no sign-ups and no cards: from 5 sessions on you always have a discount, up to 20%.

Yes, at no cost. Up to 24 hours before, you can cancel and choose between a full refund or keeping the amount as credit, valid for 90 days. You can also reschedule to any time, with the same or another professional. Between 24 and 3 hours before, it can no longer be cancelled, but you can still reschedule with the same professional. With less than 3 hours to go, the session can no longer be changed. All of this is done in your client area or through the link in the confirmation email.

Yes, for online sessions too. After the session, ask the clinic team for it by chat, email or WhatsApp. The certificate is available in your client area and states only the day, the time and that it was a psychology session, without mentioning the reason. It has a code that lets your employer confirm it is genuine at suaclinica.pt/verificar.

Yes. All data is processed in accordance with GDPR and the professional confidentiality psychologists are bound by. Our data protection policy explains what we collect, what it is for and how you can exercise your rights.

Have another question?

Ask your question and get an answer here, from the clinic's own information.

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Your mental health deserves the best care

Booking and paying for your session takes under 3 minutes, all online.