Welcome to my digital portal. As the name of this site suggests, I like to think of my profession as the scientific exploration of psychological phenomena.
Here you can read about me (as we all need some sort of re-affirmation and the delusion that others want to know about ourselves!), what I am up to, my research interests, my services and perhaps some pieces of writing.
I am an experimental psychologist and an interdisciplinary behavioural scientist. My background is in clinical psychology, and although my training covers everything under the umbrella of "mental health", I have worked mostly with anxiety-related disorders, addiction/substance misuse, relationship problems (e.g., marital problems, polyamory), as well as parenting practices. I have expertise in Applied Behavioural Analysis, which characterises my general approach to understanding and modifying behaviour. My clinical practice is based on empirically proven therapies such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT).
I also have a passion for the Experimental Analysis of Behaviour under controlled conditions. Over the years my scientific endeavours have varied within the field of psychology, ranging from observing rodents' neural activity to investigating human decision-making. My favorite area of research revolves around theories of human language and cognition from a contemporary behavioural analytic perspective.
During the pandemic, I found myself working for a charity devoted to helping individuals experiencing emotional distress. My role consisted of providing supervisory advise to the practitioners and counselors about the therapeutic work they have with their patients. I also became part of the Behavioural Science Lab led by Prof. Tom Dickins, during which I explored the literature and available empirical data on vaccination hesitance.
Currently, I am working for the WindSense project. This project is a multi-disciplinary endeavour, in conjunction with the faculty of Engineering of the University of Galway, which seeks to ascertain the impact of Wind Turbine Noise (WTN) features on levels of annoyance and their potential impact on human working memory. I lead the psychological experimentation aspect of the project.
Email: santiago.psych@gmail.com | +44(0)7432260203 | +353(0)892549782
