João Salgado, Ph.D.

ISMAI – Instituto Superior da Maia
Av. Carlos Oliveira Campos
4475-695 Avioso S. Pedro, Portugal

Email: jsalgado@ismai.pt

João Salgado, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor and the Chair of the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at ISMAI, Porto, Portugal. He is also a psychotherapist and the Director of the Counseling Service of his university. He has also been a Guest Professor in several universities (University of Jyväskylä and University of Eastern Finland, in Finland; Universidad de Granada, Universidad Autónoma, Universidad de La Laguna, Universidad de Huelva, in Spain; Universidade do Minho, Universidade do Algarve and Universidade do Porto, in Portugal). As therapist, after a previous training in narrative therapies, he is currently practicing and training a constructivist form of therapy – emotion–focused therapy – which is a blend between experiential, constructivist, and narrative approaches. His initial studies in Psychology were done at University of Porto, and he concluded his PhD in Clinical Psychology at University of Minho. Since then, he has been involved in developing socio-cultural approaches to psychology, especially narrative and dialogical approaches. Theoretically, his contributions insist in the relational and semiotic approach to the human mind. In terms of research interests, they are associated with the applications of this framework to the field of psychotherapy and clinical psychology, especially to the understanding human change processes and their difficult accomplishment. At the same time, this empirical research is mainly informed by idiographic intensive case studies. He is presently developing a research project on the role of the decentering processes in psychotherapeutic change using these basic influences. Currently, he is an editorial member of several international journals (Culture & Psychology; Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Sciences; Universitas Psychologica; International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology), and was a guest reviewer to some other journals (Theory & Psychology; Psychotherapy Research; New Ideas in Psychology).