Equipo

Vickie Andrews has international training and experience in clinical psychology using a cognitive-behavioral focus in individual, group and couple’s therapy. Her clinical experience covers a wide variety of pathologies, from eating disorders to anxiety and mood disorders. Her main areas of interest include the difficulties of cultural adaptation, couple´s therapy and difficulty in relationships, the psychological problems facing women, and working with young adults at the university age.

After working in a Crisis Center in Fort Collins (CO. USA), she moved to Latin America where she became part of a multidisciplinary team as a therapist at a family medical clinic, and in a NGO with underprivileged women and children.
After marrying a Spaniard, she settled in Madrid, where she successfully completed a Master in Clinical and Health Psychology at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. She is raising three bilingual children and understands the struggles that expatriate women face. At present, she combines her private practice at Sinews with her job as a therapist to the student body at Saint Louis University.

Andrea grew up in a family atmosphere with relatives of different nationalities: American, Spanish, English and Argentinian. Andrea was in contact with both languages, English and Spanish, throughout her development, hence her early bilingüism.

After completing a module on social integration, during which she worked for the Red Cross in their departments of employment and immigration, Andrea began her studies in Psychology at the Universidad Pontificia de Comillas de Madrid. During this training period, she balanced her studies with her work as a counselor, intervening in crisis situations, in a hot line destined to children and adolescents at risk (Teléfono ANAR).

After graduating in Psychology, Andrea continued her postgraduate training at the Universidad Pontificia de Comillas in Madrid doing a Master in Clinical and Health Psychology, to which she would add a specialization in cognitive behavioral therapy with children and adolescents. During this period, Andrea also developed various collaborative works with the IES Padre Piquer and Fundación Norte.

It was during the course of the Master when Andrea passed the rigorous selection process to do her internship in Sinews. After two years of training with us, in which she carried out her own cases, primarily from the Adult Department, and simultaneously received training on Educational Psychology with the team working in Kings College in Soto de Viñuelas, Andrea was selected as the best Master’s student of 2013 - 2015 and was elected to join SINEWS clinical team.

Since then, Andrea has acquired extensive experience in clinical work, she has attended numerous adults and adolescents with a diversity problems: bipolar disorder, anxiety disorders, complicated grief or mood disorders among others. Andrea´s gained experience on psychoeducational assessments in children and adolescents is also worth mentioning.

One of the populations with which Andrea has gained great experience is college students. Andrea has collaborated with Saint Louise University as a counselor, and since 2015 is in charge of the counseling service offered at the Instituto de Empresa University (IE), treating students who require professional help to cope with their difficulties.

In addition to her clinical work, Andrea has also shown an interest in teaching. Andrea has developed educational workshops for professionals and university students and is an internship tutor for students doing their Masters in Clinical and Health Psychology at the Universidad Europea de Madrid.

Dr. Orlanda Varela is the Executive and Clinical director of the company.
Dr. Varela practices general psychiatry and has training in a wide range of psychiatric and behavioral disorders.

She has experience treating patients of all ages- her first job upon completing her specialty was in the Children and Adolescents department in the Public Health System and she has since continued seeing children in her private practice.

Private practice has always been the focus of her professional experience. After four years of collaborating with a well-known Spanish private centre, in 2008 she started her own business (SINEWS) with her two esteemed partners.

Additionally, she has had the chance to develop her professional skills as a psychiatrist and her knowledge of human nature working for five years as a consultant psychiatrist to the prison system where, along with her clinical role, she was in charge of the suicide prevention protocol and collaborated with the ministry of justice as a psychiatric expert.

Dr. Varela has worked for nearly five years as a consultant psychiatrist for Saint Louis University- an experience that has helped her better understand the needs of the university population, particularly those who are studying abroad.

With a PhD in Psychiatry and a thesis on diagnoses, she has never lost interest in investigating and was awarded the Second Place Research Award granted by the SESP in 2007 with a study on the use of psychotropic drugs in the Spanish prisons.

Dr. Orlanda Varela is currently teaching at the UEM’s Psicología General Sanitaria Master’s Degree and is the coordinator of the practical formation of those licensed psychologists selected to complete their specialization at SINEWS.

Would you like to know if our psychiatrist receives financial incentives from the pharmaceutical industry?
Click here for more information regarding our Conflict of Interest Declaration.

Victoria comes from a diverse background of cultures, languages and religions. She is the Daughter of a Spanish father, who migrated to London for 30 years, and a South African mother raised in London. Her maternal grandparents of Jewish religion arrived in South Africa from Latvia who later migrated to London when her mother was 16 years old, where today, and all her family live. Victoria never misses a chance to go a few times a year to the UK to spend time with her grandparents and the rest of her family. She has fond memories of indulging in typical roast dinner and homemade apple pie with custard. You will never see her start her day without a good cup of English breakfast tea.

During her years as a student, Victoria started by collaborating at the Counselling Service of the University of Cadiz, helping other students. It was then that she became interested in the influence of not only family dynamics among the well-being of young people, but also the pressure that society exerts on beauty standards. In the last year of her degree, she decided to research about these topics through a study that investigates communities on social media that defend eating disorders as lifestyles. This interest lays the foundation of her future academic and professional career.

In 2016 she arrived in Madrid to complete the Master’s Degree in Clinical and Health Psychology at the Autonomous University of Madrid and chose the Eating Disorders Unit of the Hospital Santa Cristina as her training internship. During this time, she collaborated in the research about risk factors linked to the onset of eating disorders, at this same University. This collaboration was highly successful and published.

After completing her Masters, she worked for two years at the Eating Disorders Unit at ITA Salud Mental and led group therapies about strength, self-image and social skills. She also had to carry out crisis interventions to support and accompany people who were struggling to overcome their obsession with their image and regain a healthy relationship with food. During that experience, she became aware of how the suffering of a person can have a great impact on family dynamics and how it can perpetuate the problem unwittingly. This led her to start her second four-year master specialising on family and couples therapy with a Systematic approach (ATENEA).

This master gave her the opportunity to approach the universe of couples’ relationships. A relationship of two where a greater connexion is made, more than any other kind of relationship, which follows its own circle of life. A pathway run by two, with obstacles that can have an impact on that connexion or even make it stronger.

In the last year, her experience as a psychologist at private practice has allowed her to grow professionally incorporating a systemic approach together with cognitive-behavioural therapy. As a couple therapist, many times she has heard “we are rolling our last dice” and frequently it is true. An opportunity to reconnect, rebuild, or to end a chapter with the emotional support needed to remember the best of the story.

Victoria is a psychologist committed to the wellbeing of her clients. For her, it’s crucial that you feel comfortable, understood, and in no way judged, creating an environment of security and trust, where together we can design a personalized treatment.

Marta is half Scottish and half Spanish and has therefore been exposed to bilingualism since she was a child and, as a Third culture child, she is aware of what it feels like to live in between cultures. She attended the Complutense University of Madrid in order to study Clinical Psychology. During this period, she worked in Navalcarnero Prison and Fundación Atenea as a volunteer developing Intervention Programmes, psychosocial counselling and social reintegration for abusers. She completed her university internship in the Complutense University of Madrid Clinic, where she learnt the importance of using and applying efficient scientifically proven therapeutic techniques (therapy does not simply consist in discussions and venting, but also provides patients with useful tools that eliminate emotionally blocking symptoms and that be used on a daily basis.)

Upon finishing her Psychology degree, Marta moved to Edinburgh, Scotland (her father´s home country) where she worked with people within the Autism Spectrum. Her role consisted of taking a positive approach when developing person- centred support plans in order to better their quality of life while also providing them with new problem-solving strategies, autonomy and independence techniques when managing their own finances and fostering communication and social skills with the aim of creating and maintaining social relationships (friendships, love relationships…).

Marta immediately noticed the lack of psychological assistance for the Hispanic community residing in Edinburgh, so she opened the first Therapeutical Clinic in Spanish “Psicologia en Edimburgo” (Psychology in Edinburgh) that is now attending patients of all nationalities and backgrounds. Marta has learnt that there are many psychological challenges and difficulties that arise when adapting to a different country (living far from a sick family member, getting a divorce in a different country, difficulties in establishing relationships when speaking a different language etc.) from her own personal experience as well as through the experiences of thousands of people who have opened up to her during her time in Scotland.

Marta has acquired broad experience in treating adults from all nationalities, addressing diverse issues involving emotional instability, anxiety (including physical symptoms, worries, obsession etc.), and altered moods, with the treatment of traumatic experiences being particularly interesting to her.

From an early stage in her career, she became interested in the issues couples may face and therefore completed a course: "Couple therapy, sexuality and family" at the Complutense University of Madrid. As she herself says, "it is a challenge with fulfilling results. Sometimes, when they start therapy, they cannot even look at each other and to be able to see how they regain their connection after a few sessions is very satisfactory."

She works from a Cognitive Behavioural Therapy approach (CBT), she finds applying specific therapies that best suit each case vitally important, along with the use of techniques which have been proven efficient according to scientific studies. Some of them include: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT). In fact, her master’s dissertation focused on the application of EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) and Dialectical Behaviour Therapy in people diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder and Post-traumatic Stress Disorder.

Marta has also recently completed the Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) course with the EMDR Europe Association to treat emotional Trauma. EMDR is an evidence-based approach that uses eye movements for the processing of traumatic memories. Marta uses EMDR when her patients have been through a traumatic experience and still experience symptoms in the present related to that traumatic experience. You can have more information about how she uses EMDR reading “The treatment of emotional trauma with EMDR” that she has written in our blog.

Her patients describe Marta as warm and approachable person who commits to her cases completely. Her understanding of therapy implies possessing the ability to have an open mindset along with flexibility when contrasting hypothesis.

Alejandro Sancha is a clinical psychologist with extensive experience in cognitive-behavioral therapy and comprehensive assessment and rehabilitation of individuals facing acquired brain injuries.

He is intimately familiar with the challenges that international relocations pose for children and their families, having lived in different countries (Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru) from a very young age. During this period, he attended educational institutions such as the Liceo Francés de Lima and the Liceo Francés de Madrid, where a variety of cultures converged, coinciding with teachers and classmates from diverse backgrounds.

From the beginning, Alejandro aimed to combine his passion for sciences with the desire to work with people, ultimately guiding him towards the field of Psychology.

His academic journey includes studies in clinical psychology, complemented by two years of international exchange programs in the United States (State University of New York) and France (Université Jules Verne).

His passion for the stages of childhood and adolescence led him to pursue a postgraduate degree in child and adolescent psychology. For Alejandro, these are vital moments in which a great array of changes and circumstances converge, offering a valuable opportunity to make a positive impact on the development of each child.

Interestingly, Alejandro also holds a particular fascination with the later stages of life. His grandparents play a vital role in his life, and their ongoing support and influence remain indispensable. Aware of the challenges posed by functional decline in both aging and brain damage, he obtained a master’s degree in Clinical Neuropsychology to help his patients navigate this path as best as possible. His internship at the Polibea Sur brain injury rehabilitation center have allowed him to closely understand the daily challenges faced by affected individuals and their families.

During his master’s studies, he was part of the “Clinical Psychology and Health” research group, participating in the research project «Parental stress and disability. A psychological flexibility training program in the era of COVID-19» at the European University of Madrid.

Through courses, annual conferences, and additional training, he maintains a dedicated commitment to continuous professional development, recognizing its fundamental role in ensuring the highest quality in the provision of health services.

With the experience of having lived in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, the United States, France, Spain, and India, Alejandro has cultivated a deep appreciation for cultural diversity and a unique understanding of the complexities inherent in different living environments.

In his professional practice, conducted in English, French, and Spanish, Alejandro follows an evidence-based approach, placing the well-being of his clients at the forefront.

His work is characterized by helping individuals gain a profound understanding of the psychological processes underlying their experiences, providing them with the knowledge and strategies necessary to effectively face life’s challenges.

Alejandro’s profound passion for understanding human behavior and the scientific principles that support it drives his commitment to facilitating his clients’ journey toward psychological well-being. His ultimate goal is to accompany the people he works with through practical strategies for personal development and lasting positive change.

Marta is a licensed psychologist and psychotherapist who specializes in working with children, teens and adults and provides therapy in English, Polish and Spanish. She integrates her humanistic approach with techniques of cognitive-behavioral and systemic therapy to tailor the treatment to every patient´s unique circumstances and needs.

Born and raised in Warsaw, by Polish parents, Marta studied English at the British Council and her interest for British culture brought her to spend many of her summer holidays in Ramsgate. Her fondness for travel and foreign languages led her to take up Russian and French classes and to a 2-month stay in Nice (France). Finally, she chose Madrid as her destination, with an initial plan of staying for 1 year only, as a part of the Erasmus exchange program at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. She knows first-hand the challenges of being a university student abroad. To this unforgettable experience she owes a group of intimate friends from a variety of countries and cultures. Marta has started her own multicultural and multilingual family, which makes her sensitive and aware of the struggles that expatriate children and adults often have to face. She combined the last years of her studies with working as an English teacher at Kids & Us School of English and later on at Gymboree Play & Music, an early stimulation program -very popular in the USA- based on parent-child interactive activities encouraging psychomotor and language development.

At the beginning of her career path, Marta´s involvement in a clinical study concerning the preterm infants and their families brought her to explore the field of early childhood intervention. Throughout the years she has gathered a great deal of experience helping children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), ADHD, and other issues such as anxiety, phobias, depression and behavioral difficulties. She conducts workshops to provide parents with a variety of tools based on respectful parenting and positive discipline to use in their everyday life. Play is one of the most important parts of Marta´s work with children as it is the most natural way of expression of their emotions and needs.

Marta can help parents find answers to questions that emerge during child development such as: How can I help my child in achieving developmental milestones? How to deal with my child's anger? How can I support my child in improving social skills? How to find a common language with my teenager? And more...

Throughout her 10-year experience as a psychologist, while still working with children, Marta has continuously delved into the tools and skills offered by different schools of psychotherapy an extended her work to adult patients. Marta has experience helping adults who are struggling with adaptation and social difficulties, anxiety and depression, stressful and traumatic situations, grief, life transitions and multicultural issues.

In concordance with the principles of Gestalt Psychotherapy, Marta applies a holistic perspective on the human being that puts particular focus on the here and now. It is crucial for her to offer a safe and non-judgmental space in order to promote self-growth. For Marta, psychotherapy is a process that empowers the patient to become more aware of the true mechanisms behind her/his behaviors, so that she/he is able to change those that have stopped being useful. (awareness) de sus mecanismos de actuación para que pueda cambiar los que han dejado de servirle.

Dr Alma Moser, born in France to a French mother and a German father, grew up in a diverse and international environment, living in several European countries and the United States (Florida), where she first went to kindergarten and acquired her American English. During high school she also spent half a year in Toronto, Canada, where she learned about Canadian culture and way of life.

Dr Moser chose medicine with Psychiatry in mind and the idea to deepen her knowledge about how the body and the mind work together and the influences they have on each other. After the first year of medical school in Luxembourg, Dr Moser pursued her studies at the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium. As a university student she decided to spend a semester abroad in Santiago de Chile working in a local hospital, including a rotation in Psychiatry which was her first experience with mental health in Spanish. During her studies, she learned what it meant to start living and working in a new place from scratch, with a new culture, new language and rebuilding a social network. In 2019, after marrying a Spaniard, Dr Moser settled with her multilingual family in Madrid.

In a nutshell, Dr Moser knows the expatriate and multilingual experience inside out and is able to empathize fully with patients in that situation.

During the five-year residency of Psychiatry in Belgium, Dr Moser has worked with patients of all ages and has had the opportunity to combine different work environments such as hospital, emergency room, ambulatory health center and day care center, where she had the opportunity to learn and implement validated treatments for mental pathologies such as depression (including post- partum), anxiety, schizophrenia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or eating disorders, among others.

Furthermore, Dr Moser is in the final year of a four-year program in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy for children and is writing a thesis on family secrets and their impact on patients and their families. She has worked with children and adolescents suffering from autism, behavioral disorders, self- harm and suicidal thoughts.

As a therapist, Dr Moser stays as close as possible to patients and their history, knowing that each of them is unique, with their own resources and challenges, and deserves tailored answers and help. This requires good theoretical knowledge and flexibility, combined with medication only when and if necessary.

Doctor Gloria Baquero Mahecha studied medicine at Sabana University in Colombia, her native country, where she was required to pass the TOEFL to obtain her medical degree. Thus, thanks to her complete professional competence in English and being a brilliant student, she was able to train for a semester in the research area in Psychiatry at UT Southwestern University in Dallas in the areas of Psychosis and Bipolar disorder. At the time, Gloria already had a clear vocation: her interest in learning the biological bases of human behavior and emotions, combined with her regard for a more personal and close doctor-patient relationship led her to psychiatry.

To complete this path she chooses to move to Spain, where she works in an nursing home while preparing the MIR (the test to access medical specialties training). During this time, she discovers that she loves working with the elderly, both because of the richness of the experiences of other times that they share and because of the indignation caused by the tendency to evict or reduce therapeutic effort and dignified treatment when patients are over the 80-year barrier.

She completed her specialty degree in Psychiatry at the Navarra University Clinic where she trained both in the care of acute patients with an urgent discomfort (panic attacks, suicide attempts, acute psychoses...) and the continuity of patient´s care already in consultation until discharge for improvement. During her specialization, she would reconnect with the reality of older adults in a rotation in Psychogeriatrics at the Sagrat Cor Hospital in Martorell and also participating in several courses and conferences on this topic.

Expert in distinguishing cognitive impairment due to physical cause from secondary impairment to a depressive state as well as in diagnosing mental problems in elderly people with neurological problems such as Parkinson's or brain-vascular accidents and treating behavioral problems in people with dementia, Gloria is aware of the need to look for treatment options that do not interact with the numerous drugs that the most senior take daily.

At the end of her specialization and after reaching a B2 level in Danish, she moved to Aalborg, a city in the north of Denmark, where she worked as a Psychiatrist at the university hospital for a year and a half. There she divided her professional activity in the care of adolescents and adults with emotional problems of different causes, , especially due to the difficulties that arise due to the change of residence, frequent in exchange students, multiracial couples as well as problems arising from situations of high stress at work. Part of her clinical performance in addition to external consultation, occurs in the hospital setting in units of admission for patients with more acute conditions and who require more intensive care.

She returned to Spain in 2015 and settled in Madrid. She joined a multinational Travel Insurance Assistance Center as a medical advisor. In this work her experience as a doctor and psychiatrist allowed her to attend and handle cases remotely in different countries as well as perform medical escort duties in cases that require repatriation due to acute mental states.

Dr. Gloria Baquero is an experienced psychiatrist with a warm and friendly touch that makes consultation easier. Her concern with offering the best treatment adapted to each case gives excellent results regarding patient and family satisfaction.

Daughter of an American mother (Minnesota and Iowa) and a Spanish father, Alba has always lived in a bicultural and bilingual environment. Initially brought up in Spain, her family moved to the States, where Alba confronted the difficulties of adapting to the American School System and to another culture. This is where she became conscious of the support needed by children when required to study in a different language and country.

Her first contact with Speech Therapy was as a teenager through her bilingual cousin who, after living in Scotland for a while, had difficulty pronouncing the Spanish “r” sound. This awakened an interest in language as an instrument for communication and lead her to study Speech Therapy, graduating from the Universidad Complutense of Madrid in 2009. Shortly after this she began providing at-home speech therapy services to children with language delay, and in 2011 she started working at the Centro de Rehabilitación del Lenguaje, with dysphonia patients. In the same year she obtained the Voice Pathology Expert diploma, through Fundación ICH of Alcalá de Henares University. She then began working in the Centro de Rehabilitación del Lenguaje in the Sanitas Millenium and Zarzuela Medical Centers assessing, diagnosing and treating patients suffering from language, speaking, voice and swallowing disorders.

Following her first son’s birth, and later with the arrival of her daughter to the family, Alba chose to join the world of working with schools, allowing for more compatibility with family life. She worked at the International School of Madrid, combining this work with speech therapy services at home with patients with speech, language and/or literacy disorders in English and Spanish. Her work in the educational environment has given her knowledge of how language problems hinder learning and a full awareness of how receiving help in time allows children to develop their potential.

As a mother of bilingual children, in her family she applies the OPOL (One Person One Language) system, she speaks in English to the children and her husband speaks in Spanish. This experience further enriches her profile as a speech therapist who cares for children exposed to more than one language either at home or in school.