Sánchez-Román, Sofía

As a clinical psychologist, I have focused my work on health psychology, designing strategies aimed at helping patients cope with chronic disease and avoid complications by incorporating psychological theory and research to the development of methods to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Currently, I work as the head of the Psychology area at Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Médicas y Nutrición Salvador Zubirán, a National Health Institute, and one of the leading research institutions in Mexico. For the last 20 years, I¿ve been dedicated to the psychological assessment and treatment of people with chronic diseases and their caregivers, and recently my work has been focused on patients with cancer, particularly those undergoing palliative care. Additionally, I am the supervisor of the Behavioral Medicine training program of the Psychology Department of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). In this role, I am in charge of training psychology students to attain advanced clinical skills and experience with a variety of Behavioral Medicine cases. Due to the multidisciplinary nature of my work, I interact with a wide variety of healthcare providers from various disciplines, and I have the experience and the skills necessary to build teams and collaborations. Furthermore, I have experience in the design of research studies, and one of my roles is mentoring students so they can undertake a research project for the development of a program or intervention designed ad hoc to meet specific demands of the different clinics we work with.