Carla Guanaes-Lorenzi, Ph.D.

University of São Paulo (USP)
Faculty of Philosophy, Sciences and Languages of Ribeirão Preto
Department of Psychology and Education
Av. Bandeirantes, 3900 – Bloco 3 – 14040-901
Ribeirão Preto – São Paulo – Brazil

Phone: +55 (16) 3602-4446
Phone/Fax: +55 (16) 3633-5668
Email: carlaguanaes@gmail.com

Carla Guanaes, PhD is a psychologist and family therapist. She is a professor at the Department of Psychology and Education at the Faculty of Philosophy, Sciences and Languages of Ribeirão Preto at the University of São Paulo (Ribeirão Preto – São Paulo – Brazil). This University has a very strong reputation, particularly for its academic tradition in research. Her activity at the Department of Psychology includes training, supervision and research on group dynamics and family therapy, based on a social constructionist approach.

Carla’s research interests address different issues in psychotherapeutic practice. Her major focus is on the embodied, relational and conversational processes in individual, family or group therapy. She places special emphasis on the discursive, relational and embodied activities that take place in the therapeutic context, through which people can create new possibilities to describe their lives and selves. In other words, she focuses on how people can create together, through dialogical and responsive forms of talk, new forms of life.

She is author of the book The construction of change in group therapy: a social constructionist approach (A construção da mudança em terapia de grupo: um enfoque construcionista social, São Paulo, Vetor, 2006) and of many articles and book chapters in which she contributes with psychological theory and practice, based on a conversational perspective. Some of her recent writing includes: GUANAES, C.; JAPUR, M. Contribuições da poética social à pesquisa em psicoterapia de grupo. Estudos de Psicologia, Natal, 2008, in press. (Contributions of social poetics on group psychotherapy research). GUANAES, C.; MATTOS, A.T.R. O grupo de reflexão na formação do profissional de saúde: um enfoque construcionista social. Gerais: Revista Interinstitucional de Psicologia, n. 1, v.1, 79-85, 2008. (The use of the reflection group in health care professional training: a social constructionist approach). JAPUR, M. GUANAES, C.; RASERA, E.F. Otherness in the therapeutic context: the social construction of change. In: Lívia Mathias Simão; Jann Valsiner. (Ed). Otherness in question. Charlotte, North Carolina: Information Age Publishing, 2007 p. 125-161.