Maria Veronica Arevalo Moscoso

I am María Verónica Arévalo Moscoso, an Ecuadorian clinical psychologist residing in Cuenca, Ecuador. My professional career has been built at the intersection of clinical practice, legal and forensic psychology, criminology, university teaching, and research, with the aim of contributing to mental health, the administration of justice, and academic training from a technical, ethical, and evidence-based perspective.

I graduated as a Clinical Psychologist from the University of Cuenca (2018) and subsequently completed a Master's degree in Work and Organizational Psychology and Legal and Forensic Psychology, specializing in Legal and Forensic Psychology, at the University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain, 2020). I am currently continuing to strengthen my academic profile as a Master's student in Health Sciences Research at the University of Cuenca and as a doctoral candidate in Criminology at the Autonomous University of Nuevo León. This allows me to integrate clinical, forensic, and criminological perspectives into my practice and lines of analysis.

Since November 2021, I have been working in private practice as a clinical and forensic psychologist. In this setting, I conduct psychological evaluations, diagnoses, and provide individual, couple, family, and group psychotherapy, in addition to preparing clinical psychological reports. In the forensic field, I have developed experience in obtaining testimony, conducting expert assessments of testimony credibility and psychological impact, evaluating malingering and dissimulation, assessing parental competence, guardianship proceedings, and providing expert testimony on psychological and moral damages, as well as oral arguments in court. Between June 13, 2022, and October 10, 2024, I served as an expert witness accredited by the Judicial Branch of Azuay, a period that solidified my professional practice within the judicial context.

I have worked in various clinical and community settings, most notably the "Las Marías" Women and Family Support Center (Paute), where I provided support to women victims of violence and vulnerable children, as well as in mental health institutions. Another center dedicated to serving vulnerable populations was ADACAPIA, where I worked with children, adolescents, and adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

In academia, since September 2024, I have taught the course "Therapeutic Justice" in the Criminology and Forensic Sciences program at the Catholic University of Cuenca (Azogues campus), and I am a member of the program's Governing Board. My teaching responsibilities include preparing materials, using active learning methodologies (including the Socratic method), assessing student learning, and participating in complementary activities such as community outreach, formative research, and editorial support. Furthermore, I have collaborated with the University of Cuenca as a postgraduate lecturer in subjects related to the forensic field (such as Forensic Psychiatry and Foundations of Forensic Psychology and Psychopathology), and I have participated as a thesis advisor and examination board member in the Master's Program in Legal and Forensic Psychology, supporting research processes from methodological, theoretical, and ethical perspectives.

Throughout my career, I have maintained ongoing professional development in key areas such as expert testimony, domestic and sexual violence, child sexual abuse, active methodologies geared toward pedagogical performance, project formulation and evaluation, and specialized database searches. I have also participated as a speaker and facilitator in national and international academic forums, including conferences on psychological expert testimony in Honduras. Among my recent recognitions, I highlight my outstanding teaching performance at the Catholic University of Cuenca (2024–2025) and my participation as a speaker in training sessions on educational and participatory methods and techniques in health (2025).

I have advanced proficiency in Microsoft Office (Word, PowerPoint, and Excel), intermediate to advanced proficiency in SPSS, and I am a native Spanish speaker with a B2 level of English. My professional commitment is focused on providing high-quality service, contributing technical rigor to forensic practice, and supporting university education and research with responsibility, human sensitivity, and an interdisciplinary approach. All of this is geared towards contributing to the building of Cities of Peace.