Who am i...
Michelle Zuzarte
I am of Portuguese descent, born in African lands. It was these lands and my family that brought me closer to the philosophy of life that inspires this Clinic.
I completed my degree at Rand Afrikaans University in Johannesburg, South Africa.
In Portugal, I chose to pursue Clinical Psychology, in my training, which I concluded at the University of Psychology and Educational Sciences in Lisbon. In my internship, I had my first contact with the psychoanalysis of fairy tales, which has accompanied me as a privileged intervention methodology to date, and which serves as the basis for the intervention model of Hakuna Matata Therapeutic Clinic, combined with other intervention techniques .
In addition to continuous training for intervention in the family and with the child, in 2008, I completed a Master's Degree in Community Psychology and Child Protection, at ISCTE, with a thesis in the area of attachment and early parent-child interactions.
I am an effective member of the Portuguese Psychologists Order - card number 2499, with a degree of specialist psychologist, conferred by the Order in the following areas:
* Clinical and Health Psychology
* Community Psychology;
* Work, Social and Organizational Psychology.
I started my professional career in a program for the primary prevention of risk behavior with children and young people. For 10 years I worked in family intervention, more specifically in parenting and intervention in terms of family dynamics. I was invited to Coordinate Family Support Teams at Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa, after which I was Director in a Child Care Residential Facility at the same institution. Currently I am Director of the Teams that Support the Lisbon Court in Child Protection Cases.
I am the author of the program “Desenvolver a Sorrir: An Intervention Program in Early Parent-Child Interactions”, published in the book “Children in Risk and Danger – Contexts, Investigation and Intervention" and in articles published in journals in the field of psychology.
I have been developing a professional activity for 20 years, with children, young people and their families, with continuous training, of which some are specific to the intervention area of our Clinic.
In parenting I have specific additional training in:
* Family intervention and parenting skills
* Positive Parenting
* Regulation of the exercise of parental responsibilities.
* Mindful Parenting
In the area of childhood I have specific additional training in:
* Developmental disorders
* Attachment disorders
* Behavioral and learning difficulties
* Preparing the child for adoption
* Special educational needs
* Play Therapy
* YogaKids.
I also have Certification as a Trainer.
In my current intervention with children and their families, I believe that self-awareness and fidelity to our "I" are fundamental instruments for happiness and for healthy development. Therefore, while working with the fragility presented by the child, I help him discover his super powers and guide him in a Disney thought that I find inspiring: "Always let your conscience be your guide"(Pinocchio).