Marcela Pereyra, psychologist who started from scratch and hasn't stopped growing

Gender, technology and a career built with perseverance, courses and a lot of presence on the internet

“My priority is people.”

Marcela Pereyra arrived in Spain with twenty years of experience behind her back and had to start over. Without contacts, in the midst of the 2008 crisis, in a new country. What could have been a brake became the starting point for a second professional phase that today includes own private practice and teaching a master's degree. Psychologist with a career based on continuous training, self-taught digital presence and an attentive look at the people in front of her.

In this Eholo Voices interview, Marcela shares what that process of reinvention was like, what challenges and what joys she has encountered along the way, and how she thinks about the next few years of her career.

When people are the priority

There are therapeutic approaches that are defined by a technique or a school. Marcela's is defined by something simpler and more demanding at the same time: the people ahead. This phrase —"my priority is people"— summarizes a way of understanding psychology that is not limited to method.

Over the years, this view has led her to deepen the field of gender, a specialization that she found in Judith Butler a key reference. He is also focusing on something that he sees growing in consultation: the consequences of early access to technology in children and adolescents. Two areas that, according to her, still have a long way to go.

The biggest challenge... and the best time

Starting from scratch in a new country with two decades of accumulated experience is a challenge that few people imagine until they live it. Marcela experienced it to the full.

“Starting from scratch in a new country, when I had 20 years of experience in my home country. Overcoming it was not easy, a change in culture, the change just coincided with the 2008 crisis, I had no professional contacts.”

The exit was neither immediate nor easy. It was publishing on their website, improving their internet presence in a completely self-taught way, training in new specializations. Little by little, they find their place in the professional fabric of the country.

And the best time? Marcela doesn't place it in the past.

“My best moment? When I was finally able to centralize all my work in my new private practice and have started teaching classes for a master's degree, I'm definitely still at my best!”

Organization to be able to take better care

With the consultation in place and the teaching integrated into her week, Marcela uses Eholo to lighten the administrative part of the work. He describes it very clearly:

“An excellent support tool, my right hand in the administrative aspects of my profession.”

When people are the priority, having day-to-day management covered is no small detail.

What's Next: Gender, Screens, and the Next Generation

Marcela sees two main lines that will mark psychology in the coming years. The first, gender: a field that believes it still has a lot of territory to explore. The second, something that is already present in the consultations but that will increase: the effects of the early use of technology on children and adolescents.

These are two areas that, in his opinion, are going to require a lot of attention and training on the part of the profession.

Imagine the consultation five years from now

Marcela is quite clear about it. In five years he wants to continue exercising, but with less burden. Not because he has stopped liking work — quite the contrary — but because he will reach an age when he will want to do other things.

“I love my job, but I'll be of retirement age and I'll be working part time, to have more time spent on generative activities: writing, reading, traveling, going to the gym more... without haste.”

A transition thought out calmly, while continuing to do what gives meaning to your career.

Inspiration and references

📚 Book that changed the way you think — The gender in dispute, by Judith Butler. “A few years ago I began to deepen my knowledge about gender and the way in which this author explains it makes rethinking the concept of gender compelling.”

💭 If I weren't a psychologist... — “I always say that in the next life I would like to dedicate myself to performing art, I love to sing and dance. I must confess that sometimes I sing to my patients.”

💬 Phrase that marked his life — “Dream strong, dream a lot, without forgetting that dreams must be accompanied by perseverance, effort and work.” Antonio Banderas said it.

🍽 Dream dinner — With Sigmund Freud. “He was the first professional to give women a voice so that they could speak up about what was happening to them, and that's how psychoanalysis began.”

✨ Professional reference — The psychoanalyst Lola López Mondéjar. “Your book Without Story it's wonderful and terrifying.”

Learn More About Marcela

🔗 Marcelapereyra.com

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