SOCIOANALYTIC PRACTICE
Dr. Mónica Rocío Velarde Lazarte
The aim of a Socioanalytic Practice is to search for the psychoanalytic truth of the person, group, community, organization or society by bringing insight and increasing conscious awareness of otherwise unconscious aspects of their making. The resulting experience is revitalising. When purpose is clarified, meaning transforms into value.
Thanks for visiting! Explore my site to learn more about socioanalysis, psychology and what I have to offer. If you have questions or would like to discuss an opportunity to work together, feel free to get in touch.
ABOUT ME
My Background
I am a socioanalyst, psychologist, and organizational consultant with over 20 years of experience working across the finance, energy, health, government, and education sectors. My practice focuses on the psycho-social life of institutions — particularly the ways in which organizational trauma, social defenses, and unconscious role dynamics shape systems of care, governance, and exchange.
I work at the intersection of systemic insight, emotional truth, and ethical imagination, supporting individuals and institutions to reconnect with purpose, responsibility, and the conditions for deep, sustainable collaboration.
Much of my work has unfolded in contexts marked by complexity, conflict, or rapid change — including in the financial, energy, and healthcare sectors — where leadership can become constrained, and where unmet needs or disavowed realities may be pushed underground. Through careful exploration of social defenses, I help surface the hidden tensions and possibilities within systems, enabling new forms of coherence, creativity, and connection to emerge.
Over the years, I’ve worked with organizations and communities in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Cuba, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Italy, Panama, Peru, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. This transcultural practice has deeply shaped my approach: I see institutions as cultural containers where histories, languages, power, and values meet — often in collision, sometimes in transformation. My work supports the navigation of cultural complexity and fosters the dynamics of authentic collaboration across difference.
Trained in the Tavistock tradition, I design and direct Group Relations Conferences, lead long-term organizational consultancy, and offer supervision and role analysis in English, Spanish, and French. I also integrate embodied methodologies such as 5 Rhythms movement practice, which help access unconscious group dynamics through the body, especially where verbal reflection alone is insufficient.
My practice is deeply informed by an attention to inner life and spiritual experience — not as dogma, but as a space of resonance, stillness, and ethical discernment. I believe that transformation is not only intellectual or structural, but also existential: it involves returning to what matters, listening beyond what is said, and creating space for what has not yet been imagined.
As a Professional Partner of the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations, and co-founder of Socioanalytic Practice, Wild Thoughts UK, and The Territory, I support institutions and individuals in cultivating the conditions for ethical leadership, creative emergence, and collaborative renewal.
SERVICES
Take a look below to learn more about my services, and feel free to get in touch if you’d like to learn more.
PSYCHOLOGIST
A space for growth
I create a safe space for the exploration and understanding of your mind. I accompany you to understand your difficulties and in the depth of their roots, I hold the space in which you can uncover its potential for a more fulfilling and authentic life.
ORGANISATIONAL CONSULTANT
An external view
As a consultant, my vision is to develop organisations and professionals engaged with the creation of a free, healthy and sustainable world. To do so, through a systemic and psychodynamic approach to consultancy and research in organizations and societies.
I take into practice the values of creativity, systems thinking, reflective citizenship, diversity, honesty and entrepreneurship integrating tradition and innovation through action research and action learning in organizational and social consultancy.
ROLE ANALYST, SUPERVISOR AND COACH
Below and beyond the surface of perception
I integrate a variety of frameworks and methodologies to help you understand how your personal history and the history of your organization and community shape your "profesional stories". Through our work we will find better ways to be connected as persons in roles. I also supervise Role and Organizational Analysts and Coaches in the Tavistock Tradition
GROUP RELATIONS CONFERENCES
Organisational laboratories in real time.
An acellerated learning experience that offers a mirror of organisational life.
Group Relations conferences take the shape of a temporary learning organisation that builds an experiential learning community. The conferences are composed by a range of events that mirror typical organisational situations creating a micro-cosmos of organisational life.
The different backgrounds, nationalities, beliefs, cultures, genders, generations, races, faiths and spiritualities represented within the conference will all play a part in what their participants achieve together in this living system.
PREVIOUS CLIENTS
Some of my clients over the years
Upcoming Events
The TerritoryTime is TBDThe Territory
TESTIMONIALS
Dr. Eliat Aram
CEO Tavistock Institute of Human Relations
Monica is an insightful OD consultant and leadership coach,working skillfully with the dynamics which are under the surface. She is an entrepreneur at heart see her charity hope for the Amazonas, which she started with the purpose of increasing dialogue between native communities and mining conglomerates to safeguard and sustain the Peruvian jungle, the amazing Amazonas river on all their human and non human habitats
MY EXPERIENCE
Experience and Roles
I am Dr. Mónica Velarde Lazarte — a socioanalyst, psychologist, and organizational consultant with deep training in the Tavistock Tradition of Group Relations and systems psychodynamics. My work bridges psychoanalytic insight, systems thinking, and ethical imagination, helping individuals, teams, and institutions explore the unconscious dynamics of leadership, authority, and collaboration.
My practice spans consultancy, teaching, and clinical work, with a particular focus on institutional trauma, cultural transformation, and the management of anxiety in organizations. The following is an outline of my current and past work experience. Each role has provided an opportunity to learn, grow, and continue developing both as a person and a professional.
MANAGER AND CONSULTANT FOR BUSINESSES AND ORGANISATIONS
With more than 20 years of international consultancy experience, I support organizations in turbulent environments to develop resilience, creativity, and collaborative capacity.
-
Leadership and Authority Development: I have trained and consulted with more than 15,000 managers and consultants from 36 nationalities across 18 countries, delivering over 7,750 hours of training grounded in the Tavistock Tradition. My focus is on helping leaders and consultants take up roles with clarity, authority, and ethical responsibility.
-
Cultural Transformation in Banking: I have led transformation programmes in international banking institutions, helping organizations shift entrenched cultural patterns, manage systemic anxiety, and build conditions for trust, collaboration, and innovation.
-
Healthcare Systems (HUG, Geneva): At the University Hospitals of Geneva, I designed and facilitated Tavistock-inspired programmes for doctors, nurses, psychologists, and social workers. Central to this work was managing institutional anxiety — the collective unease that arises when caring for highly vulnerable populations. Through reflective group work and embodied practices, staff learned to contain anxiety, reduce defensive patterns, and foster resilient, collaborative care.
-
Organizational Trauma in the Energy Sector: I have consulted on systemic responses to social conflicts, helping organizations recognize and transform collective anxiety, institutional trauma, and defensive organizational practices.
My consultancy emphasizes managing organizational anxiety, navigating authority and power dynamics, and releasing untapped resources for creativity, ethical imagination, and transformation.
LECTURER AND TEACHER
Sharing my knowledge and experience is one of the activities I truly enjoy.
Teaching and sharing knowledge are central to my professional life. I have held academic and executive teaching roles in several institutions:
-
ESAN Graduate Business School: Faculty for the Master’s in People Management and Administration and the Master’s in Health Services Administration.
-
Peruvian University of Applied Science: Co-designed the Psychology degree programme, embedding a Group Relations curriculum across three years of study.
-
London School of Economics (Department of Psychology): Worked with the London Multimedia Lab on applied research and teaching.
-
Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad: Visiting Faculty, contributing to leadership and organizational analysis programmes.
PSYCHOLOGICAL THERAPIES WITH PSYCHOANALYTIC ORIENTATION
As a psychologist with psychoanalytic training, I support individuals and groups in navigating life transitions, identity struggles, and emotional challenges.
-
Adults: Working with people experiencing workplace stress, professional disorientation, or difficulties integrating personal and professional life.
-
Late Adolescents and Young Adults: Supporting identity development and the search for belonging in transitions to adulthood.
-
Trauma: Wide experience with individual and systemic trauma, including the impact of institutional and organizational life.
-
Couples: Helping couples navigate the emotional complexities of building family life.
FOUNDER HOPE OF THE AMAZON CIVIL ASSOCIATION
As founder of Hope of the Amazon, I led systemic interventions in the Peruvian Amazon for vulnerable, displaced, and traumatized populations. This work involved:
-
Supporting individuals and communities experiencing cultural loss and dislocation.
-
Collaborating across private, public, and governmental sectors to create sustainable programmes for recovery and belonging.
-
Addressing the psychological impact of displacement and the breakdown of traditional community structures.
TRAINED IN PSYCHOANALYTICAL METHODS
Most of my professional work informed by psychoanalytic theory. On one hand the Tavistock tradition, which I apply in my work with social systems. On the other hand, I continuously try to increase my knowledge as psychologist and therapist by participating in professional development opportunities at psychoanalytical institutes in UK, Switzerland and the USA.
EXPERIENCE IN INTERCULTURAL AND INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTS
Having lived long-term in several countries and consulted across five continents, I specialize in helping individuals and organizations navigate cultural complexity.
-
Expertise in intercultural collaboration and conflict resolution, transforming cultural misunderstandings into opportunities for growth.
-
Countries of Professional Work: Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Cuba, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Italy, Panama, Peru, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, the UK, and the USA.
-
Languages: Fluent in Spanish, English, and French.
EDUCATION
My Studies
Since 2003
STUDIES IN PSYCHOANALYSIS
I am passionate about psychoanalysis. I first discovered it while working as a manager in a Peruvian bank, at a time when I was searching for powerful ways to create deep cultural change. That experience ignited a lifelong commitment to understanding how unconscious processes shape individuals, groups, and institutions — a commitment that has continued to grow ever since.
Over the years, I have specialized in the Tavistock Tradition to work with groups, communities, and organizations. My approach has been continually enriched by my own personal analysis and by further studies in London, where I participated in the Foundation Programs of the Society of Analytical Psychology (SAP), the Introductory Lectures, the Political Mind Seminars, and the Foundation Program of the Institute of Psychoanalysis.
Building on this foundation, I undertook training in Adult Psychoanalysis at the Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research (IPTAR) in New York, USA. After this period, I relocated to Switzerland and later to the UK, where I continue to deepen my analytic training and practice, integrating clinical psychoanalysis with my consultancy and teaching work.
January 2015 - January 2019
PROFESIONAL DOCTORATE IN CONSULTATION AND THE ORGANIZATION
My dissertation is based on a research study conducted on the adaptation of the Tavistock Group Relations Method for work with Amazonian Communities in the Peruvian Amazon. Using critical incidents and participants testimonies, the study examines how the method was modified in response to the demands of the environment. I also consider how the conferences outputs differ from those normally expected or documented in traditional Group Relations Conferences.
The dissertation explores the adaptation of the Tavistock Group Relations Method in the case of the Hope of the Amazon Program and Hope of the Amazon Civil Association, following a group of Amazonian participants over a period of seven years.
Key words: Tavistock Group Relations Method, democratic learning, social inclusion, community development.
2013
PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATION IN CONSULTATION AND THE ORGANIZATION D10C. THE TAVISTOCK AND PORTMAN NHS
A unique professional qualification in consulting to organisations delivered from a ‘Tavistock’ systems-psychodynamic perspective. My consultancy portfolio included a Board consultation to an elite Latinoamerican Construction Company struggling with issues of sucession; developing a bespoke Corporative Social Responsibility intervention for Talisman Energy in Peru; designing the Group Relations Program of the Career of Psychology of Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas; designing the leadership development and Group Relations program of Esan Business School in Peru and Consulting to the President of Perupetro during the Petrogate Crisis in Peru, later designing a Group Relations intervention bringing together the Energy Sector (Public, Private sector and Native Communities leaders).
1997-2003
LICENSE PSYCHOLOGIST AND BA IN PSYCHOLOGY
Passionate for the understand the human mind and its search for purpose and connection I followed a six year training in Psychology leading to a Professional License and registration in the Peruvian School of Psychologists
LET’S CONNECT
I’d love to hear from you.
Woodrising, Cherry Drive, Fortys Green, Beaconsfield, HP9 1XP. United Kingdom
+44 7365 39 4626