Ana Cláudia Fernandes is a Clinical and Health Psychologist and Visiting Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Philosophy and Social Sciences of the Portuguese Catholic University. She graduated from the University of Minho, where she completed a degree in Psychology, Clinical and Health Specialisation, a Master's Degree and a PhD in Health Psychology. She subsequently completed a Clinical Specialisation in Psychodynamic Psychotherapy at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto.
She is a full member of the Portuguese Psychologists' Association, with certification in the Speciality in Clinical and Health Psychology, the Advanced Speciality in Psychological Coaching and the Advanced Speciality in Psychotherapy.
She has 20 years' experience in the field of Clinical and Health Psychology, namely in psychological counselling/psychotherapy for adults and young adults, teaching in higher education and scientific research, the latter of which she was awarded a PhD Research Grant (BD) from the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT).
In terms of teaching in higher education, she has prepared and taught various curricular units for the 1st and 2nd cycles of studies in Psychology and advanced training at the FFCS of the UCP, with a special focus on the History and Epistemology of Psychology, Ethics and Deontology, Social Policies and Human Development, Ethology and Evolutionary Psychology, Clinical and Health Intervention in Groups and Positive Psychology. She has been coordinating Advanced Training in Positive Psychology and Logotherapy since 2015.
The reference models in her clinical practice are cognitive-behavioural, psychoanalytic and logotherapy. The disorders targeted for psychological intervention in her clinical experience are, above all, anxiety disorders, affective disorders, psychosomatic disorders and chronic organic diseases.
She is the author of several articles published in national and international journals in the field of Cardiac Rehabilitation Psychology. She currently combines the practice of clinical and health psychology with teaching and research in Logotherapy, Existential Analysis and Positive Psychology.