Miriam Mower Hanlon

Miriam was born and raised in Madrid with a bicultural background since her parents are an English couple who met and stayed in Spain, bringing up their children as ‘third culture kids’.

Miriam has a bachelor‘s degree in Psychology from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. She then pursued further studies in cognitive-behavioural therapy (“Psychopathology and Health”, UNED; “Master in Clinical and Health Psychology”, Universidad Camilo José Cela; “Cognitive-behavioural therapy with children and adolescents”, UNED); as well as later focusing on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and tools from other contextual behavioural therapies, such as Behavioural Activation, Dialectical Behaviour Therapy and Functional Analytic Psychotherapy (Máster en Terapias Contextuales, MICPSY, Madrid).

She has over seven years’ experience working as a clinical psychologist. She began at a clinic, Sinews, where she worked with expats who suffered different issues whilst adjusting to living abroad, such as homesickness, anxiety and/or depression, past traumas being triggered, interpersonal conflicts, etc. During this time at Sinews, she also held the position of counsellor for Syracuse University students and later on for Stanford University students. Working in this environment enriched her understanding of cultural adaptation and how every person’s experience abroad is so different.

Miriam also has over five years’ experience teaching American University students who have enrolled in a ‘study abroad’ program in Madrid, teaching subjects such as Health Psychology, Abnormal Psychology or Social Psychology. This has provided her with a valuable understanding of American culture from both sides: as a teacher, but also as a therapist.

Furthermore, Miriam also worked via Sinews as the secondary school counsellor at King’s College (Soto de Viñuelas, Madrid), providing the students with emotional support, as well as liaising with their family and/or teachers. This gave Miriam a more complete picture of all the different difficulties students may undergo in their academic years, and how to best support them from different angles, whether it is through therapy, academic support, or giving professional guidance to parents and/or teachers.

In recent years, after experiencing first-hand the challenges that arise when becoming a parent, Miriam has deepened her studies in perinatal psychotherapy as well as on updated research on parenting. She realised how much emphasis is put on preparing for birth or the lack of sleep, whereas the psychological issues that are faced are completely ignored. This encouraged Miriam to want to help parents during this vulnerable period of time, where it’s common to suffer self-doubt, as well as feelings of anxiety, guilt, fear and/or loneliness.

Miriam has experience working with a vast variety of problems: social anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, depression, general anxiety, self-esteem issues, etc. She works with teenagers and adults, and has recently begun providing group sessions.

Miriam summarises that her way of working involves teaching tools to address negative thoughts and feelings, as well as helping her patients discover and connect with what matters most to them in order to help them live a more meaningful life. “I strongly believe that everyone is doing the best that they can to cope, even when going through their most difficult times, but we all still sometimes need caring and non-judgemental support to help us find our way forward”.