Dr. Andreia Santo, HCPC

Dr. Andreia Santo is a versatile and compassionate clinical and counselling psychologist practitioner who brings a broad international training background to her clinical work. She qualified as a psychologist in 2008 after completing a Licenciatura in Psychology of Education and Rehabilitation at the University of Algarve in Faro, Portugal, a program she notes as academically comparable to the British clinical psychology doctorate. Early in her career she completed a full-time placement with Projecto Integrado de Intervenção Precoce in Coimbra, providing psychological assessment and intervention for children and parents and contributing to projects that promoted social inclusion and emotional wellbeing.

Her training included placements within the National Health System at the Health Centre of Faro and in a local council service, and she undertook a year of postgraduate training in Cognitive and Behavioural Therapy accredited by the Portuguese Association of Behavioural Therapy and the European Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Therapies. After relocating to the United Kingdom in 2010 she completed a two-year part-time postgraduate diploma in Family and Systemic Theory at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust and worked across Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) until June 2024.

Dr. Santo holds HCPC registration - the UK regulator for health and care professions - and now focuses on an independent research project on Unconditional Love Science while offering remote clinical work privately and via online services. She is passionate about psychology, science, nature, art and travel, and encourages a therapeutic emphasis on self-compassion and remembering one’s inherent worth. She maintains set working hours and typically does not respond on Sunday and Monday, and response times may vary depending on availability.

Therapeutic Approaches and Online Care

Dr. Andreia Santo draws on evidence-informed approaches to tailor care to each person’s needs. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) helps people clarify personal values and build psychological flexibility by learning to accept difficult thoughts and focus on meaningful actions - it is often useful for anxiety, stress, and life transitions. Attachment-Based Therapy explores how early relationship patterns influence current connections and emotional responses, supporting work on relationship difficulties, abandonment concerns, and attachment issues. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) offers practical strategies to identify and change unhelpful thinking and behavior patterns, which can help with depression, anxiety, compulsive behaviors, and many day-to-day challenges.

Choosing the right approach is a collaborative process. Dr. Santo and the client will work together to identify goals, try interventions, and adapt methods based on what feels most useful, drawing on her experience across ACT, attachment work and CBT to find the best fit for each person’s situation.

Online therapy offers flexibility and accessibility by allowing sessions by video call, phone, live chat or text-based messaging. These options make it easier to fit therapy into busy lives, maintain continuity during relocations or travel, and access registered professionals from different locations while preserving the therapeutic relationship and ongoing support.