Pau Perez-Sales is a psychiatrist and director of the Universidad Complutense de Madrid's Post-Doctoral Degree in Mental Health in Political Violence and Catastrophe. He is also affiliated with the Department of Psychiatry Hospital La Paz in Madrid and Director of SiR Centre for research, forensic documentation and rehabilitation of ill-treatment and torture victims.

Education

Pau Perez-Sales holds a degree in medicine at the

University of Barcelona The University of Barcelona (official name in ; UB), formerly also known as Central University of Barcelona (), is a public research university located in the city of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. It was established in 1450. With 76,000 students, ...

and did a speciality in psychiatry at Hospital La Paz, Madrid, In 1994, he received his PhD in Psychiatry from the

Autonomous University of Madrid The Autonomous University of Madrid (; UAM), commonly known as la Autónoma, is a Spanish public university located in Madrid, Spain. The university was founded in 1968 by royal decree. UAM is widely respected as one of the most prestigious univ ...

Research and career

Pau Pérez-Sales is a former Chair of the Section on Psychological Consequences of Persecution and Torture of the World Psychiatric Association. He has conducted extensive research on the operational application of scientific research on torture and psychological torture. He defined the concept of "torturing Environments" and developed a set of tools to quantify and study them. He worked as a consultant for the

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a list of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations which coordinates responses to international public health issues and emergencies. It is headquartered in Gen ...

, the Inter Agency Standing Committee group on ''Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings', MH-GAP Intervention Guide'' ''Rapid Assessment in Emergencies Program'' and coordinated MHPSS programs for Doctors of the World and Mediciens Sans Frontier. His other research interests include psychotherapy in individual and community trauma, transcultural psychiatry, post-traumatic factors, and resilience. He developed the VIVO Questionnaire as an integrative tool for assessing the impact of traumatic experiences on identity and worldviews and has trained and led research in more than 20 countries. With more than 20 years of professional experience, Pau Pérez-Sales played a key role in the

Liberation Psychology Liberation psychology or liberation social psychology is an approach to psychology that aims to actively understand the psychology of oppressed and impoverished communities by conceptually and practically addressing the oppressive sociopolitical st ...

movement in

Latin America Latin America is the cultural region of the Americas where Romance languages are predominantly spoken, primarily Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese. Latin America is defined according to cultural identity, not geogr ...

, living and working in

Nicaragua Nicaragua, officially the Republic of Nicaragua, is the geographically largest Sovereign state, country in Central America, comprising . With a population of 7,142,529 as of 2024, it is the third-most populous country in Central America aft ...

Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

El Salvador El Salvador, officially the Republic of El Salvador, is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by the Pacific Ocean. El Salvador's capital and largest city is S ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

and

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

working with community-based organizations and authoring a wide range of books and articles related to enforced disappearances, exhumation of mass graves and policies of truth and reparation.

Memberships

Pau Perez-Sales is Editor-in-Chief of

Torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons including corporal punishment, punishment, forced confession, extracting a confession, interrogational torture, interrogation for information, or intimid ...

and former Associate Editor of Intervention International Journal of Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Conflict-Affected Areas.

Published books

*(2022). *(2021). *(2020). *(2016). *(2016). *(2013). *(2009). *(2007). *(2006). *(2004). *(2001). *(1999). *(1999). *(1999). *(1998).

References

External links

Pau Pérez-Sales
website
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