Elena Bayo | Neuropsychologist in Girona

I’m Elena Bayo (Registered Psychologist, Col. No. 22.582 COPC, licensed as a Healthcare Psychologist in Spain and France). My career hasn’t followed a straight path: it has crossed borders, languages, healthcare systems and very different professional contexts, and that is exactly what has shaped me into the professional I am today.

I am a neuropsychologist, which means I work at the intersection of brain and behaviour, between what happens neurologically and how that translates into a person’s real life: how they learn, how they regulate their emotions, how they relate to others, how they function day to day. I assess, diagnose and treat both children and adolescents and adults, with a particular focus on cases where no one has yet been able to give a clear answer to what is going on.

I have spent over ten years working with people with ASD, ADHD, learning difficulties, giftedness, intellectual disability and other cognitive or developmental needs. I have supported two-year-olds just after a first diagnosis, teenagers who have spent years not understanding why the world feels harder for them than for everyone else, and adults who arrive at my practice with decades of being misunderstood and a late-identified condition that finally has a name.

I lived and worked for several years in France, first in Paris and later in Haute-Savoie, in clinically complex settings: early intervention services for people with ASD, neuropsychological rehabilitation for acquired brain injury, and psychosocial rehabilitation in mental health. For nearly eleven years I have designed and delivered clinical training programmes for healthcare and social care professionals across France. I am a member of the Scientific Committee of the Coopérative AIR (speciality: Psychology and Neuropsychology) and contributed to the development of the PCH Enfant, a decision-support tool for multidisciplinary teams at French disability assessment bodies (MDPH), with the support of the CNSA. France is not simply a country where I worked: it is a structural part of how I understand clinical practice.

Alongside my clinical work, I am a university lecturer on the Master’s Programme in General Healthcare Psychology at UNIR and a teacher on healthcare and social care vocational training cycles in Girona. Teaching keeps me current and forces me to explain clearly what is lived with complexity in the consulting room, and that feeds directly back into how I support my patients.

I believe neurodiversity is not a problem to be fixed, but a reality to be understood and properly supported. And I believe the families, carers and professionals surrounding a neurodivergent person deserve the same quality of attention as the person themselves: clear guidance, concrete tools and someone who speaks their language, sometimes quite literally. I work in Spanish, Catalan and French.

Main areas of practice

• Neuropsychological Assessment and Diagnosis in Children, Adolescents and Adults Neuropsychological assessment is one of my core areas. I don’t see it as a bureaucratic formality or a report that ends up in a drawer, but as a map of how that specific person actually functions: what their strengths are, where the real difficulties lie and what can be done about it. I carry out comprehensive assessments for suspected ASD, ADHD, learning and literacy difficulties, giftedness, intellectual disability and neurodevelopmental disorders, as well as evaluations of executive functions, memory, attention, language and adaptive behaviour, and neuropsychological assessments of adults with acquired brain injury or neurocognitive disorders.
• Therapeutic Intervention for Neurodiversity and Neurodevelopmental Conditions Beyond diagnosis, I support therapeutic processes for people with ASD, ADHD, learning difficulties and neurodivergent profiles in general, both in individual sessions and in work involving the whole family. My approach is integrative and functional: I draw on evidence-based methodologies including ABA (Applied Behaviour Analysis), Verbal Behaviour, structured social skills training and sensory-based approaches in autism, and adapt them to the real person in front of me.
• Adult Neuropsychology and Acquired Brain Injury I work with adults who have experienced a traumatic brain injury, stroke or other cause of acquired brain injury, as well as people with neurocognitive disorders requiring rehabilitation or cognitive stimulation. My Master’s thesis focused specifically on the influence of bilingualism on executive functions in patients with traumatic brain injury, and my first clinical placement was at the Institut Guttmann in Badalona, an internationally recognised centre for neurological rehabilitation.
• Clinical Psychology for Adults Beyond my neuropsychology specialisation, I see adults going through difficult periods: anxiety, panic attacks, depression, grief, stress, burnout, low self-esteem, emotional blocks, relationship difficulties or simply the feeling that something isn’t right without quite knowing what. You don’t need a diagnosis or a label to ask for help. Sometimes life is simply heavy, and having a professional space in which to make sense of what is happening makes a real difference.
• Child Psychology and Therapy for Adolescents I work with children and adolescents presenting emotional, behavioural or relational difficulties, with or without an associated diagnosis. Fears, insecurity, sadness, behavioural problems, difficulties at school or within the family, emotional regulation, self-esteem and adjustment to life changes are among the most common reasons for seeking help. In these cases, working with the family is an integral part of the process, not an optional add-on.
• Guidance and Support for Families and Carers A core part of my work is supporting the people around someone with a specific need. Families who need to understand a diagnosis, carers who have run out of resources, professionals seeking guidance. Working with the person’s environment is often just as therapeutic as working directly with the individual.

Therapeutic approach

My approach is integrative, functional and person-centred. I don’t align myself with a single school of thought or methodological dogma: I combine tools grounded in neuroscience, psychoeducation, cognitive-behavioural and systemic intervention, and specific neuropsychological techniques, choosing in each case what makes the most sense for that person, at that moment, in that context. I have completed specialist training in sophrology, positive psychology, Montessori applied to neuroscience, Professional Crisis Management, sensory stimulation and Snoezelen, among many others. I am an accredited trainer in the Libera-Care Standard of the Fundación Cuidados Dignos, based on person-centred care, particularly relevant in supporting older adults.

Training and accreditations

• Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology, specialisation in Clinical Psychology (child, adolescent and adult) – Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB).
• Official Master’s Degree in Neuropsychological Rehabilitation and Cognitive Stimulation – Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB). Thesis: “The influence of bilingualism on executive functions in patients with traumatic brain injury.”
• Master’s Degree in Teacher Training, Specialisation in Socio-Community Intervention – UNIR (Universidad Internacional de La Rioja). Thesis: “Project-Based Learning as an educational tool in the Higher Vocational Training Programme in Social Integration.”
• Certificate in The Science of Happiness (Positive Psychology) – University of California, Berkeley (edX), 2018.
• Clinical placements at the Institut Guttmann (Badalona) and the Hospital Universitari de la Vall d’Hebron (Barcelona, Addictions Unit).
• Member of the Scientific Committee of the Coopérative AIR / Airmes (France), speciality Psychology and Neuropsychology, since 2015.
• Collaborator and trainer for Unapei (France), the national federation of associations for people with intellectual disabilities and neurodevelopmental disorders.
• University Lecturer on the Master’s Programme in General Healthcare Psychology – UNIR.
• Teacher in Healthcare and Social Care Vocational Training Programmes (CFGM and CFGS) – Grup Cedesca, Girona: Care for People in Situations of Dependency and Social Integration.
• Accredited trainer in the Libera-Care Standard – Fundación Cuidados Dignos.

Scientific publication:

• “Effectiveness of a proprioceptive exercise program in nursing home residents” – Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 2016. Previously presented at the LVI Congress of the Spanish Society of Geriatrics and Gerontology (SEGG), Barcelona, 2014.