Interview with Marc Muñoz, a psychologist specialist in Barcelona

Today in psychoactive we have the pleasure of interviewing Marc Muñoz, Barcelona psychologist. With his career he will answer interesting questions about mental health.

First of all, Mark thank you for your attention for the interview, we start if you think ..

Since when do you dedicate yourself to psychology and because you decided to dedicate yourself to it?

Thanks to you for inviting me.

Psychologist's exercise since 2015. My decision to dedicate myself to psychology was for personal reasons. When I was 15 years old, I went through difficult times at a personal level, to the point that I had great anxiety and, in addition, I suffered bullying. Two years later, the result of all this, and a little by chance, a little out of curiosity, I signed up for a subject of psychology in the high school course of the Institute. There we were recommended to read the book "Let me tell you" by Jorge Bucay. At that time the book was an inspiration for me and I began to read more books by this writer. Subsequently, I chose to study the degree of Psychology, where I learned that self -help is not the same as behavior science. Once the university was over, I felt that at a practical level I needed training. I studied a master's degree in clinical practice, but I had the feeling of being limited at a practical level. Motivated, I trained through the master in cognitive-social therapy, being able to expand both my theoretical and practical knowledge. I combined the last year of the Master with the beginning of the profession and later I started my professional career on my own in different consultations. In parallel I continue to train courses on different themes. Professional training in this field never ends and you have to be constantly updating.

If you had not dedicated yourself to the mental health field you think you would have dedicated yourself?

Among the options he was considering when he was 18 were philosophy and psychology. Answering your question, I imagine that, if I had not studied psychology, I would have chosen to dedicate myself to physiotherapy. Although it may seem that it has nothing to do, they share in common to help people, yes, from the body, anatomy and musculoskeletic physiology, which is a field that interests me.

Where can we find you both physically and on online mode?

Physically pass consultation in Barcelona, ​​very close to the Maragall Metro. Also in the center of Manresa and in Sabadell's.

As for the online modality, you can send me an e-mail with any questions or issue to [email protect] and you can also find me on Instagram (https: // www.Instagram.com/Marcmunoz.Psychologist/) and on Facebook (https: // www.Facebook.com/Marcmunoz.psychologist).

How does a professional like you the current theme of pandemic that we continue unfortunately live?

The truth is that since the coronavirus appeared, I had consultants who did not want to do online therapy, and obviously the face-to-face therapy was unfeasible. That was to some extent to learn to manage the uncertainty of the moment. But it is also true that, from pandemic, there is more awareness of the importance of mental well -being (and I do not speak only of mental problems in a sense of disorders). That has translated into greater number of people who want to consult. So, although at first I professionally suffered certain complications, now I am noticing greater number of people who want psychological attention. I live this with some enthusiasm and personal challenge, and at the same time it is important to know my own limits regarding how many patients can I attend to the week. Not knowing these limits, leads to a worse quality of life, discomfort and anxiety that can manifest in several ways. In this sense, the mental health professional must also take care and have their strategies to do so. Mine consist of being able to talk to other colleagues who understand me, listen to music and dance, exercise, watch TV, walk through a park or meet with friends.

Do you remember your first patient? How would you define such experience?

Yes, I remember that, in the practices of the master's degree in clinical practice, I attended a patient who showed a challenging attitude and, as a little trained professional, I could not help him or perceive that they help me. Anyway, everything is learned.

Already in the field of work, I also remember my first patient, a 17 -year -old boy who showed a very low and unusual mood for him and his family.

The first patient is a great challenge because, at least I lived that experience with doubts and concerns that are gradually learned to manage thanks to the experience.

What would you say to a person who decides to study the psychology career?

Something that would say is that, if it goes through a bad time and wants to study psychology to find answers, the ideal is that I first go to a psychologist and then study the degree. The university career is the beginning to know about a subject, in this case psychology, human behavior and everything related to it (the brain at the physiological level, group dynamics, the treatment of mental problems, mental processes such as attention , perception and memory, learning laws, etc.). Within it there are several areas of action and it is not necessary to end up doing psychotherapy. Even at any time, at least now, it is possible to train and work in a context (for example, educational psychologist in schools) and change another (for example, sports psychologist in a basketball team). Although the ideal is that as it progresses in the courses of the career, there is a path that indicates a certain trajectory and that, with postgraduate studies, the student specializes on a specific subject. So, patience, tranquility, you don't have to make a more or less final decision until the last university course.

On the other hand, it is important that you read a lot and especially about science and pseudoscience. In psychology, there is a whole set of false knowledge that confuse and even deceive. Not falling into those traps should be a responsibility by entities and politicians. Unfortunately in this area we are very initiated and those who practice pseudosciences camping at ease making pseudotherapies that can cost, in the best situations, money losses, and in the worst, damages for health.

What are you an expert in the field of mental health?

I am an expert in the treatment of depression, anxiety problems, complicated duel, fibromyalgia and couple therapy.

Well, we will delve into psychology a bit that will surely be very interesting for our visitors.

We can start, for example, with psychotherapy with a gender perspective, what is it and what benefits can you contribute to people?

The gender perspective is an approach where it is intended to show the differences between men and women that occur at the cultural and social level by living in an unequal society between genres. We can think that there is gender equality, but the data shows that there are still many steps to perform. Psychotherapy with a gender perspective implies attending gender socialization. This is the internalization of ways of being and acting for what is expected of someone to be a man or woman. Men, in general, are socialized, to focus on ourselves, women, to focus on other people.

What is expected of me for being a man gives me privileges with respect to being a woman, but also involves a gold -based gold prison Likewise, not being able to express emotions traditionally considered women). Obviously each man is different, but we all share a particular relationship with these patriarchal gender beliefs or mandates that are focused on the person, on the self.

As for being a woman, the person receives a double socialization. On the one hand, a traditional socialization, where it is expected to be more focused on others than on its own well -being, that it has a good physical and social image and that implies having a specific and socially valued physicist, in addition to being kind, caregiver, caregiver, Excessively respectful, not getting angry or having difficulty, etc. On the other hand, a modern socialization, where women are expected to develop individually, study something you like, be economically independent, have hobbies, keep friends and be sexually released and have sexual desire. This double socialization leads to an internal contradiction (something that Marcela Lagarde, a feminist anthropologist, called gender syncretism), which generates emotional and self -esteem instability.

With this approach, we seek to understand in a more understanding and predictive way human relationships and human functioning and suffering to foster equality and not continue to feed or reproduce the different injustices and discomforts that can submit men and women.

Well, the truth is that the issue is really interesting, but there are others that are also, we move on to a question that we would certainly love that you will answer us and explain as a great professional that you are, how do we deceive ourselves? Which is certainly a very interesting question.

Our mind has two big ways to process information. After all, we do not see the world as it is, we see it as we are. These two ways are heuristic and cognitive biases.

The former are mental shortcuts that lead us to conclude with more agility on a specific topic. They are generally successful, but on some occasion they can take us error. For example, when the first vaccines emerged, there were people who died due to unexpected circumstances. While the percentage of deaths due to the vaccine was very low, the fact that this information was very vivid and that the news frequently informed of it, caused us to think to die due to the vaccine was more frequent than by statistics it could be. When an event can be remembered easily, we tend to think that it is more frequent than it really is. This is known as a availability heuristic.

As for cognitive biases, they always lead to a subjective and wrong way to process information. A tremendously common bias is to pay attention to those opinions that support my way of thinking and discard everything that contradicts my way of seeing the world. This can explain, in part, because it can cost us to change our minds. This bias is known as confirmation bias. It is a way to support our views, and the more related to our identity and our values, the more difficult they will be to change, since who I am I am at stake.

There are many other biases studied by researchers, such as overvalued someone's opinion for being an expert in a subject in question (bias of authority), the belief to think that we knew that something would happen once has already happened, since we altered the I remember what we previously thought of what happened (retrospective bias), believing that our opinions, values, habits and views are more common among everyone than they really are (bias of the false consensus) or the trend to assume their own successes but not failures, which are attributed to aspects external to the person (self -service bias).

We have already seen that Marc Muñoz is a great expert in the field of psychology and that we have talked about two really striking and interesting themes.  But finally we would like Marc to summarize other issues also of interest to our visitors and in which you are also a specialist.

We talk about topics such as:

Depressive disorders

Generally and at the popular level we talk about depression to refer to a specific mental problem. But depending on the problem, whether it occurs in childhood and/or adolescence, if it is related to the menstrual cycle, if it is due to any drug or medication, if it is caused by another medical problem, or not meets all the characteristics to be met, one problem or other will be given. Thus, diagnosing a depressive disorder with exactly is not an easy task and a mental health expert should do it.

Anxiety

Within anxiety problems there are different situations or conflicts, ranging from intense and continuous phobias or fears in specific situations (spider phobia, driving or water), to excessive and repetitive concerns that are lived as intrusive ideas and Automatic for the person, through panic attacks, where the person has an exaggerated activation of anxiety body reactions, to the point of costing him to breathe, have tachycardia or think that he will die. Thus, anxiety problems can be varied depending on whether the symptoms are more mental or cognitive, physical or somatic, behavioral or of actions, emotional or arise in social contexts (speaking in public, difficulty starting or maintaining a conversation, etc.

Complicated duel

When people lose a loved or something valuable (a relative, a couple, a friendship or a pet, even a physical or mental work), we go through a natural and adaptive response called duel. This answer is characterized by a mixture of emotions where we can feel sad, anger, relief, guilt, fear, nostalgia among other emotions. It was generally believed that there were phases for duel, but it has been seen that this explanation is not scientific and it is more successful I have commented before.

In an attempt to lighten our discomfort, we can avoid being in contact with our emotions. This is a sign that can lead us to suffer complicated duel. Related to the above, a man who lives his masculinity in a traditional way, or a woman who does not allow living a duel because he must attend and take care of other people, are at risk of suffering a complicated duel.

In order to get out of this situation, we must be able to hear our emotions, which can be unpleasant or even painful. A duel leads to work part of our identity associated with the loss that is lived, which is why it has its difficulty to manage this experience. The rational and emotional parts of the brain have different rhythms.

To do this, the therapy will focus on managing emotions, working identity and making farewell rituals that allow to integrate the absence of the person.

How to choose a psychologist

In the field of psychotherapy there is no legal regulation, so we can find people who act as therapists without being psychologists or even psychologists who do not follow the scientific method. Considering and respecting the ethical code of good psychological practices implies working from scientific models.

While the trust and understanding that a professional can transmit are important, the psychologist must be collegiate and be able to solve any questions you have. Your answers must be based on science and you are entitled, as a patient, to ask what therapy will consist of.

If our psychologist tells us about energies, quantum or pipeline. If you want the person doing therapy with that therapist, it is in your freedom, but know that most likely, it does not help you solve a specific problem, at least not from a scientifically realistic and proven approach.

Well, thank you very much, it has been a very enjoyable interview. We undoubtedly have a great psychologist who we recommend. See you soon, a hug.