MARIA JOSÉ MARTINS DE AZEVEDO (LISBON, 1959), Clinical Psychologist, Psychotherapist, Psychoanalyst and Child and Adolescent Psychoanalyst, Trainer in Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy. She has been in private practice since the 1980s. She is a Full Member in Psychotherapy of the Portuguese Society of Clinical Psychology, a Member of the Portuguese Society of Psychoanalysis, of the International Psychoanalytical Association, of the European Psychoanalytical Federation, and of the Société Européenne pour la Psychanalyse de l'Enfant et de l'Adolescent, in whose scientific activities she regularly takes part. She is also a Specialist Member in Clinical and Health Psychology and a Specialist Member in Education. She holds Advanced Specialisms in Psychotherapy, Community Psychology, and Early Intervention from the Order of Portuguese Psychologists. She has clinical experience in institutional settings in the field of mental health with children, adolescents, adults, and families at the Lisbon Child Mental Health Centre, Dona Estefânia Hospital, and Júlio de Matos Hospital; and in educational and social solidarity institutions at Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa, working with infants, children, and at-risk families in preventive mental health intervention. She was a lecturer for education professionals at Instituto Piaget; a lecturer in Rorschach Psychology and Projective Methods at the Higher Institute of Applied Psychology (ISPA); and a lecturer in the Psychology of Art and Visual Communication in the Art and Design and the Marketing and Advertising courses at the Institute of Art and Design (IADE). She is a founder and a member of the governing bodies of the Portuguese Society of Rorschach and Projective Methods and of the Association of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy in Childhood and Youth, and an honorary founder of the Portuguese Society of Clinical Psychology. She is a Specialist Member in Psychological Diagnosis and Psychotherapy, and a Trainer and Supervisor of the Portuguese Society of Clinical Psychology in those fields of specialism. She has taught seminars on Psychotherapy vs. Psychoanalysis, on Experience and Psychic Transformation, the Clinical/Thematic Seminar The Early Mother-Baby Relationship, and the Clinical Seminar on Children and Adolescents. She is a trainer at the Portuguese Society of Psychoanalysis, where she has taught seminars on the work of Melanie Klein and on the work of Donald Meltzer, coordinated the Journal Club seminar, and led Clinical Seminars presenting the final dissertations of candidates in Psychoanalysis. She was part of the first Ethics Council. She is a peer reviewer and a member of the editorial board of the Portuguese Journal of Psychoanalysis. She has published articles in the Portuguese Journal of Psychoanalysis, in Kairos magazine, in Cidade Solidária magazine, and in the online newspaper Rua Direita (www.ruadireita.pt), and has also taken part in several national and international congresses in her field.
She is the author of the following books on psychoanalysis: The Psychoanalyst's Workshop — Essays on Psychoanalytic Experience (2017); Resurrection — The Place of the Future and the Hopeful Function of the Object (2021); On the Virtual Couch — Psychoanalytic Reflections (2024); Memory and Analytical Writing — Essays in Psychoanalysis (2024). She writes under her literary name, Maria José Vera, and is the author of the following titles: The Transgressions of Love (2016), a novel of psychoanalytic character; and The Lucifer Complex — An Essay on the Condition of Contemporary Man: Civilization and Barbarism (2018), her second book of essays in the literary sphere, in which the psychoanalytic vision prevails. In 2021 she also published her first children's book, Tininha's Adventures during the Pandemic, which deals with the theme of weaning and the psychic aftermath of the pandemic in childhood, followed by Tininha and the Wolf Friend (2023) and Tininha in Ukraine (2024), which address, respectively, the psychoanalytic themes of school bullying and identity of the name, and the trauma of war and the parental and social psychic containing role. Her books are published in Brazil and translated into French, English, and Romanian.
