Maria Muñoz-Grandes, M.Sc., M.Ed., M.A.

• Professor of Psychology and Organizational Development, IE University, Segovia and Madrid, Spain
• Psychotherapist and Counselor (individuals, couples, families)
• Life and Career Coach
• Corporate Consultant (Organizational Development)
• Founder and Director of Unoymas Relational Development

IE University email: mmunoz-grandes@faculty.ie.edu
Unoymas email: info@unoymasrelationaldevelopment.com
Psychotherapy: info@mariamunozgrandes.com
Webpage Unoymas: www.unoymasrelationaldevelopment.com
Webpage Maria: www.mariamunozgrandes.com
 
Academic and Professional Credentials:

• M.Sc. in Positive Organizational Development, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, USA (2015)
• M.A.
  in Psychotherapy, Laureano Cuesta Psychotherapy Association, member of
  the Spanish Federation of Associations of Psychotherapy (FEAP), Madrid,
  Spain (2012)
• Post-Graduate
  certificates in Psychotherapeutic Interventions: “Social Constructionist
  Epistemology“Cognitive Interventions I: Rationalistic Models”,
  “Cognitive Interventions II: Constructivist Models”, “Constructivist
  Clinic”, “Relational Psychodynamic Psychotherapy”, “Experiential and
  Gestalt Psychotherapies”.UNED University (2010)
• Ph.D.
  courses: “Positive Psychology”, “Constructivist Psychotherapy:
  Evaluation of Personal Meanings through the Repertory Grid Technique”,
  “Attribution
   Processes, Psychological Wellbeing and Health”,
  “Qualitative Methodologies for Therapeutic Communication Evaluation”.
  UNED University (2009)
• Postgraduate
  Specialist Degree in Clinical and Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (Children
  and their Families) , Comillas University, Madrid, Spain (2005).
• Postgraduate
  Specialist Degree in Clinical and Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (General
  Practice), Comillas University, Madrid, Spain (2003)
• Psychotherapist Accreditation, Spanish Federation of Associations of Psychotherapy (FEAP), Madrid, Spain (2000)
• B.Sc. in Psychology, Autonoma University of Madrid, Spain (2000)
• M.Ed. in Guidance Counseling, Pontifical University of Madrid, Spain (1998)
• Postgraduate Specialist Degree in Psychological Counseling through Dynamic Guidance, Comillas University, Madrid, Spain (1998)
• Psychodramatist
  Certification (Systemic Model), Group Techniques and Psychodrama
  Institute (ITGP), accredited by the Spanish Association of Psychodrama
  (AEP), Madrid, Spain (1996)
• Expert Degree in Gestalt Therapy for individuals and Groups, Comillas University Interaction Institute, Madrid, Spain (1993)
• Expert
  Degree in Person-Centered Therapy for Individuals and Groups, Comillas
  University Interaction Institute, Madrid, Spain (1993)
• B.A. in Philosophy, Pontifical University of Madrid, Spain (1989)

Professional Experience in Education:
 Since 2012, I have been a Professor of Psychology, Epistemology and Organizational Development at IE University, at the international business school in Spain. At IE University I also lead the Design Thinking Lab, an initiative to bridge the gap between the academy and the workplace. We do this by forming consultancy teams that help companies find creative solutions to their challenges via collaborative efforts and creative thinking methodologies. I am also a supervisor for seniors completing final projects in psychology. At IE University, I have also taught Professional Ethics, Decision-Making, and Psychology as a Profession.

 Prior to IE University, I was a Professor of Social Psychology at the National Distance Learning University, UNED, Madrid (2001-03), and a Professor of Psychodrama at the Pontifical Comillas University, Madrid (1997-98).

 My first roles in Education were at the American School of Madrid, where I taught philosophy (1990-96) to high school students and worked as a case consultant and ad hoc specialist in the school’s Counseling and Health departments. My foundation in collaborative and experiential learning dates back to my volunteer experience in Leon, Nicaragua (1990-92), where I developed, in collaboration with the local primary school teachers, a teacher-training program through the NGO Manos Unidas.

 I have a passion for education, especially for co-creating learning communities with my students, whereby all of us get to experience the virtues and enhanced results of doing research together as a multi-tasking organic team rather than as isolated individuals or disconnected small groups. .

Professional Training and Personal Development Courses:
 I have collaborated in various professional training programs—for psychotherapists and other professionals—and facilitated personal development courses in different organizations. Since 2014, I have taught the course in the University of Granada’s Master’s program in Art Therapy titled “Theater of Life,” which I previously taught at the Instituto de Interacción (Madrid, 2004-13). In this course, participants explore life situations that are interesting for them, through theater. I mix improvisation, performance and psychodrama with social constructionism and collaborative practices. I also teach the “Organic Relational Creativity” course, where we work with intuitive painting, intuitive movement and performance, alternating the spaces for individual and collaborative creation and dedicating always a meta-space to reflect together about the creative process in the arts and in our lives. I believe that the enhancement of our expressive channels and symbolic languages results in more possibilities for communication and being. I myself am an artist.

Counseling and Psychotherapy:
 In 2001, I became accredited as a psychotherapist by the Spanish Federation of Associations of Psychotherapy ( FEAP). I have completed the postgraduate training programs in Person-Centered Therapy (1991-93), Bioenergetics (1994-98), Psychodrama (1992-95), Gestalt (2004) and Modular-Transformational Psychoanalysis (2004-12). I also have extensive postgraduate training in Positive Psychology, Constructivism, and Social Constructionism (2009-11). I have worked as a counselor since 1993 and as a psychotherapist since 2001. I enjoy enormously the collaborative adventure of meaning-making, the search for more fulfilling ways for resolving conflicts and challenges, and the processes of renewal that therapy enables, which I share daily with my clients: adults, children (and their families), and couples. Over the years, I have developed what I call the “intermodal” approach to the practice of psychotherapy: I use the different theories and techniques from a repertoire of psychotherapy modalities that I know, in ways that are responsive to each client’s needs as they become salient in the therapeutic relationship. I use all of my inspirational models and life wisdom to enrich my conversations with clients so that new possibilities for creative change can emerge.

 Hermeneutics, Social-Constructionism, the “multiple being” theory of identity, and Collaborative/Dialogical Practices constitute the major philosophical framework for my practice of psychotherapy. Within this framework, I give special attention to (1) modular-transformational psychodynamics, (2) the motivational systems theories of contemporary psychoanalysis; (3) the notion of implicit embodied memories from psychodrama and active therapies; (4) the “active listening” technique of the personcentered approach as a way to better enable the self-awareness process; (5) the intersubjective style of gestalt conversations with its attention to organic processes; (6) systemic reading of the conflicts of family therapy, and (7) the idiosyncratic system of meanings that each person and group brings to the therapeutic situation, from the constructivism.

Research Projects:
 Since my earliest academic studies in philosophy, I have been passionate about epistemology and theories of knowledge, evident still in the subjects of my current research projects: (1) Models of maturity and multiple perspectives on the good-life in organizations, an inquiry into the implicit proposals of ideal ways of living that each community of knowledge is actually making; (3) Generative Design: an exploration on the intuitive holistic rationality and creative thinking; and (3) Organic Relational

 Creativity, an exploration of the relational basis; (4) Designing research, an inquiry into the social construction of knowledge and the action-qualitative research/inquiry methodologies (in collaboration with Celiane Camargo-Borges and Kristin Bodiford); of the creative process as “emergence.”

Managing Meaning:
 In 2012, I became a Taos Institute associate. The TI learning community has enriched my life ever since.

 In my previous experiences on institutional boards I have performed the roles of External Relations Officer and Executive Committee member of the European Association of Psychotherapy, E.A.P (2011-13); board member of the Spanish Federation of Psychotherapy (2010-13); board member of the Spanish Association of Psychodrama (2010-13); and the representative of the Laureano Cuesta Association of Psychotherapists in the FEAP Board (2010-13).

Organizational Development:
 I have completed a M.Sc. in Positive Organizational Development at Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland, USA, 2013-15) and am now starting to work as a coach and consultant. I accompany individuals in the process of redesigning their personal and professional lives, and company businesses in their organizational development and change processes.

 In 2014, I created Unoymas Relational Development, an organization for personal, professional and organizational development, of which I am Executive Director (see www.unoymasrelationaldevelopment.com).